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
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
