Thaddeus Mosley
Images (from left to right): Thaddeus Mosley, Cross Current, 2022, bronze, 91 x 41 x 24 inches © Thaddeus Mosley. Courtesy the artist and Karma. Thaddeus Mosley, Interior Decipher, 2022, bronze, 104 x 32 x 15 inches © Thaddeus Mosley. Courtesy the artist and Karma. Thaddeus Mosley, Illusory Progression, 2020, bronze, 91 x 41 x 24 inches © Thaddeus Mosley. Courtesy the artist and Karma. Thaddeus Mosley, Rhizogenic Rhythmns, 2022, bronze, 82 x 32 x 37 inches © Thaddeus Mosley. Courtesy the artist and Karma.
Cross Current, Interior Decipher, Rhizogenic Rhythms, and Illusory Progression
Thaddeus Mosley
8th and Penn, Pittsburgh
August 29, 2024 –August 31, 2025
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is pleased to present a solo exhibition of four monumental bronze sculptures by Pittsburgh-based artist Thaddeus Mosley (b. 1926, New Castle, Pennsylvania) at the intersection of 8th Street and Penn Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh’s Cultural District.
Since the 1950s, Mosley has created monumental sculptures crafted from the felled trees of Pittsburgh's urban canopy. Using only a chisel and gouge to maintain the integrity of the original log, Mosley reworks salvaged timber primarily from indigenous Pennsylvanian hardwoods into biomorphic forms. With artistic influences ranging from Isamu Noguchi to Constantin Brâncuși to Bamum, Dogon, Baoulé, Senufo, Dan, and Mossi works from his personal collection, Mosley’s “sculptural improvisations,” as he calls them, also take cues from the modernist traditions of jazz.
In 2020, Mosley began working bronze in order to bring his sculptures to life outdoors. Cast from wooden sculptures and meticulously patinated to match the natural gradations of their surfaces, these bronzes immortalize Mosley’s organic artworks in a non-corrodible material. Weighing several hundred pounds more than their wooden counterparts, these metal sculptures nevertheless seem to float.
“My sculpture, the beauty of it, for me, is the textures that direct your eye and give a sense of rhythm…and vitality to the piece,” said Mosley. “I like the evidence of the hand, evidence of the tool.”
Thaddeus Mosley is curated by Anastasia James, Director of Galleries & Public Art, and presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in collaboration with Karma.
Since 1984, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has installed temporary and long-term public artworks within the 14-block radius of the Cultural District in partnership with regional, national, and international artists, galleries, community-based, and other non-profit organizations.