Arny Nadler

Arny Nadler’s work explores the predicament of the human form — its fragility and dominance in the environment. Exploiting the natural plasticity of ceramics, his sculpture situates the body in a state of ambiguous metamorphosis. Irregular outgrowths in the material signal erratic germination or atrophy. By working against symmetry, he challenges the expectations of wholeness for the body. Their stilled and puzzled nature is a grasping for truth or a viable belief system.

Nadler is an associate professor in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, where he chaired undergraduate art from 2013-2018. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture from WashU and his Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He is a recipient of a George Sugarman Foundation grant, both a Fellowship and an Artist Support Grant from the Regional Arts Commission, and two Sam Fox School Faculty Creative Activity Research Grants. Nadler has works in the permanent collection of the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art and was included in the 24th “No Dead Artists” exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans. He was in a two-person exhibition with Ivan Albreht at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was included in “This Moment of Rupture,” a national survey of contemporary ceramics at VisArts Art Center in Rockville, Md. Other venues include the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Newport Beach Civic Center, and the Catherine Konner Sculpture Park, with reviews in Art in America and other publications. 

Nadler moderated the panel Material Poetics at the 2017 International Sculpture Conference in Kansas City and has presented at the Foundations in Art: Theory and Education Conference and the Mid-America College Art Association Conference. He has been a visiting artist at several universities and colleges and is represented by Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, where his solo exhibition “Firstlings: Sculptures + Works on Paper” opened in October 2020.