Arny Nadler American, b. 1969

Nadler’s sculptures investigate the body in a state of ambiguous metamorphosis. Many works begin as individual parts that are eventually grafted together in a manner that nods at structural order but disregards anatomical and proportional correctness. Irregular outgrowths in the material signal erratic germination or atrophy—a misfiguration of appendages. The resulting forms are often simultaneously heroic and absurd—they acknowledge the limitations of the body and flout conventional response systems. Where traditional figurative sculpture often captures a predictable motion in time and space, Nadler’s work changes as the viewer moves around it. What happens on one side might be wholly unanticipated on the other. By working against symmetry, he confronts the expectations of wholeness for the body.

Arny Nadler is a sculptor and associate professor at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his BFA in Sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art.