Tom Friedman

Friedman was the 50th artist in the series, which focuses on emerging artists.

An interview with Storr at this time yielded important information about Friedman's process and circular logic.

Tom Friedman (born 1965) is an American conceptual sculptor.

He was born in St. Louis, Missouri and received a BFA in graphic illustration from Washington University in St. Louis (1988) and an MFA in sculpture from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1990.).

As a conceptual artist he works in diverse media including sculpture, painting, drawing, video, and installation.

For over twenty years, Friedman has been investigating the viewer/object relationship, and "the space in between."

He has held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York], Yerba Buena Museum of Art, San Francisco, Magasin 3 in Stockholm, Sweden, The New Museum in New York, the Tel Aviv Art Museum, and others.

His work can be found in the museum collections of MoMA, Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum, the Broad Art Museum, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

Friedman lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Friedman's sculpture is recognizable for its highly inventive and idiosyncratic use of materials like Styrofoam, foil, paper, clay, wire, plastic, hair, and fuzz.

Working autobiographically, he uses painstaking, labor-intensive methods to recreate seemingly random elements from his life.

In each piece, he pays obsessive attention to detail, particularly in the replication of the objects that surround him.

Friedman brings humour and childlike wonder as well as grave philosophical issues to each work.

With the art object as departure, he uses everyday, easily understood found materials.

He says it's "enticing and seductive to start with the simple humble object that we all 'think' we know."

His intent is to draw the viewer into the simple beauty and familiarity of a piece, and then invite them to investigate it further.

Although much of the published work on Friedman's art focuses on the materials, it is ultimately about the tension produced through the phenomenological experience of observer, artwork, and space in between.

He often refers to his process as "orchestrating an experience."

He uses the art experience as a context for opening people's minds to new ways of seeing, and thinking.

To do so, he has developed a circular logic: a way of investigating the object and whittling it down to a core understanding of its metaphor and how it connects to the viewer, in their everyday life, and within societal and philosophical constructs, and then back to the object again.

Friedman worked closely with Feature Inc. for over 15 years.

Feature was started in Chicago by Hudson.

Friedman eulogized Hudson, saying, "He understood the development of an artist and their vision. He could see so clearly the evolution of consciousness of an artist, and he knew how to push the work to the next level."

Friedman held his first solo exhibition in 1991 at Feature in New York.

Three years later, he made his international debut in an exhibition at the Galleria Rauicci/Santamaria in Naples, Italy and the Galerie Analix in Geneva, Switzerland.

Notable works from this time period include, Everything (1992–1995), 1000 Hours of Staring (1992–1997), Untitled (Curse) (1992), Untitled (Aspirin Head) (1994) and Untitled (Toothpicks) (1995).

His affiliation with Feature at this time led to a relationship with curator Robert Storr, which led to an exhibition in the Elaine Danhessier Project Series at MoMa in the spring of 1995 in tandem with Bruce Nauman's "Retrospective."

In 1996 Friedman exhibited with Chuck Close ("Affinities: Chuck Close and Tom Friedman") at the Art Institute of Chicago, curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn.

In that same year, Friedman participated in exhibitions in France and Italy, also working with curator Paul Schimmel in Brazil for the Sao Paulo Biennale.

In 1999 Friedman was one of five resident artists (including Byron Kim, Pauli Apfelbaum, Suzanne McClelland, Lorraine O'Grady) teaching at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

Friedman met John Waters, the visiting artist of that year, who later interviewed him for Parkett Magazine.

In the interview Friedman spoke of his evolution as an artist over time, as well as the significance behind his art.

On the humor of his work, Friedman said, "there's this misconception that playful thinking is not serious and it's not important."

Between 2000 and 2002 a major exhibition of his work entitled, "Tom Friedman: The Epic in the Everyday", was organized by the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA).

The show was exhibited there, and traveled also to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, the Aspen Art Museum, and the New Museum, New York.

At this time Friedman was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim, an honor given to artists deemed the most innovative and influential of the time.

In 2002 Friedman was invited to have a solo exhibition at the Fonadzione Prada, Milan, Italy, curated by Germano Celant.

A two volume catalogue was produced for the exhibition.

Friedman held two solo exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery: "New Work" at the Beverly Hills gallery and "Monsters and Stuff" in London.

Both shows yielded extensive monographs.