Tom McGlynn

The term “social sculpture” is most readily identified with the German conceptual artist Josef Beuys, who has said: “an enlarged understanding of art could work and could break through the borders of isolation which the present culture stands in . . . .” —Nova Scotia, 1974

Much has changed since then, in the overall cultural reception for art, and sculpture is no longer solely represented by isolated modernist gestures. How art “represents” and is received, nevertheless, still tends to get a rarified treatment and is generally cordoned-off—if not literally, then figuratively—behind dense thickets of aesthetic and social theory.

In my approach to the conception and execution of these works, I considered the specific social context of their situation as part of their formal genesis—not in a didactic way, but with an intent that might focus spontaneous interaction with the pieces and with other viewers.

—Tom McGlynn

Galleries Sculpture