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Thaddeus Mosley

Thaddeus Mosley (b. 1926, New Castle, Pennsylvania) creates monumental sculptures crafted from the salvaged wood from Pennsylvania’s forests. Using only a chisel and gauge to maintain the integrity of the original log, Mosley reworks timber—primarily from indigenous Pennsylvanian hardwoods such as cherry and walnut—into biomorphic forms. Through a process of direct carving, the artist’s marks respond to and rearticulate the natural gradations of the material’s surface. With influences ranging from Isamu Noguchi to Constantin Brâncuși—and the Bamum, Dogon, Baoulé, Senufo, Dan, and Mossi works of his personal collection—Mosley’s “sculptural improvisations,” as he calls them, also take cues from the modernist traditions of jazz. “The only way you can really achieve something is if you’re not working so much from a pattern. That’s also the essence of good jazz,” he says of his method. Mosley lives in Pittsburgh.

Thaddeus Mosley: Touching the Earth, a solo exhibition organized by Public Art Fund, is on view at New York’s City Hall Park through November 16, 2025. His work has been presented in institutional solo exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2023); Art + Practice, Los Angeles (2022); and Baltimore Museum of Art (2021), as well as group exhibitions at the Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2022); Harvard Business School, Boston (2020); Sculpture Milwaukee (2020); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2018); and Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh (2009), among others. Mosley’s sculptures are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; The August Wilson African American Center, Pittsburgh; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Brooklyn Museum, New York City; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Colby College Museum, Waterville, Maine; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Seattle Art Museum; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Portrait photo by Jason Schmidt

Portrait photo by Jason Schmidt

Born 1926, New Castle, Pennsylvania
Lives in Pittsburgh

EDUCATION

1950

BA, English and Journalism, University of Pittsburgh

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2025

City Hall Park, New York, Thaddeus Mosley: Touching the Earth, organized by Public Art Fund

Karma, New York, Proximity

2024

8th Street and Penn Avenue, Pennsylvania, Cross Current, Interior Decipher, Rhizogenic Rhythms, and Illusory Progression, organized by Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

2023

Karma, Los Angeles and New York, Recent Sculpture

2021

Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, Forest, 2021–2022 (traveled to Art + Practice, Los Angeles, 2022–2023; and Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas,  2023)

Harvard Business School, Boston

2020

Karma, New York

2011

Paul Mesaros Gallery, Morgantown, West Virginia

2010

August Wilson Center, Pittsburgh, Sculptures by Thaddeus G. Mosley

2009

The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Thaddeus Mosley: Sculpture (Studio/Home)

2004

CUE Art Foundation, New York

2002

Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Thaddeus Mosley

1997

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Recent Sculpture by Thaddeus Mosley

1995

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh

1990

Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh

1979

Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Artist of the Year

1968

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025

Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Painting Energy: The Alex Katz Foundation Collection at the Portland  Museum of Art

2024

Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, MADE IN PA

Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado, From There to Here, curated by  Meriwether McClorey

Seattle Art Museum, Following Space: Thaddeus Mosley & Alexander Calder

2023

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Inheritance

2022

Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Symbiosis, curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody

The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, Courage Before Expectation, curated by Keith Rivers

Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, File Under Freedom

70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, Thaddeus Mosley and Frank Walter: Sanctuary

2021

Maximillian William, London, Embodying Anew

GRIMM Gallery, Amsterdam, Romancing the Surface, curated by Loie Hollowell

Sculpture Milwaukee, there is this We, curated by Theaster Gates and Michelle Grabner

Three Rivers Arts Festival, organized by Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Urban Redevelopment Authority, East Bond Plaza, Pittsburgh

2020

Friedman Benda, New York, Comfort, curated by Omar Sosa

Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Plaza, New York, curated by Brett Littman

2018

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Carnegie International

Featherstone Center for the Arts, Massachusetts, The Beautiful Difference

2017

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 20/20: The Studio Museum in Harlem and Carnegie Museum of Art

2015

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Uncrated: The Hidden Lives of Artworks

University Art Gallery at the University of Pittsburgh, Exposure: Black Voices in the Arts

2010

African American Cultural Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Generations: Six African American Artists

2008

National Academy of Design, New York, 183rd Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art

Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, In Search of Missing Masters: The Lewis Tanner Moore Collection of  African American Art

2007

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Popular Salon of the People: Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annuals,  1910–2006

2006

Cities of Asylum, Pittsburgh, Winged House

1975

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 66th Annual Exhibition of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh

1959

Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh

Public Collections

Art Institute of Chicago

The August Wilson African American Center, Pittsburgh

Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland

Brooklyn Museum, New York City

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Colby College Museum, Waterville, Maine

High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Portland Museum of Art, Maine

Seattle Art Museum

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City

Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City

Awards

2024

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Icon Award for Outstanding Artistic Contributions

SculptureCenter Gala Honoree

2023

United States Artists Fellowship

2022

Isamu Noguchi Award, The Noguchi Museum

2021

American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards in Art

History Makers Award, Senator John Heinz History Center

1999

Governor’s Award for Artist of the Year, Pennsylvania Visual Arts

2008

Cultural Award, Pittsburgh Center of the Arts

Service in the Arts Award, Pittsburgh Center of the Arts

PUBLICATIONS 

2025 (forthcoming)

Thaddeus Mosley: Weight in Space (Karma, New York)
Texts: Jessica Bell Brown, Catharina Manchanda, Fred Moten, Jenée-Daria Strand, interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist

2020 

Thaddeus Mosley (Karma, New York)

Texts: Ingrid Schaffner, Sam Gilliam, Brett Littman, Jessica Bell Brown, Ed Roberson, Connie H. Choi,  interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist 

1997 

Thaddeus Mosley: African-American Sculptor (University of Pittsburgh Press)

Text: David Lewis

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