The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presents Thaddeus Mosley’s solo exhibition, Cross Current, Interior Decipher, Rhizogenic Rhythms, and Illusory Progression from August 29, 2024 through August 2025. For more information about Pittsburgh Cultural Trust public art and visual arts in the Cultural District, visit TrustArts.org/VisualArts.
For decades, working with only a chisel and gauge, Thaddeus Mosley chipped away at one of the most distinctive and original bodies of work in contemporary art. Now, a solo exhibition of four monumental bronze sculptures, each with its own unique story and form, are part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s public art on view at 8th Street and Penn Avenue in the Cultural District.
New Castle-born, Pittsburgh-based Mosley is renowned for his work in wood—specifically, sculpting biomorphic forms from felled Pennsylvania hardwoods from Pittsburgh’s urban canopy. He began working with bronze in 2020 to bring his work to life outdoors. Cast from the wooden sculptures and meticulously patinated to match the natural gradations of their surfaces, these bronzes immortalize Mosley’s organic sculptures in a non-corrodible material, keeping the connection to their sylvan origins. His influences range from sculptors Isamu Noguchi and Constantin Brâncusi to the modernist impulse in jazz improvisation.
To create these monumental bronze sculptures, Mosley utilizes lost-wax casting—an ancient, highly sensitive metalworking technique in which a mold made from an original sculpture yields a wax replica, which is then covered in a second fireproof mold and burned out with molten metal. As a result, these bronze iterations precisely echo each of Mosley’s marks and retain their sense of vitality. Weighing several hundred pounds more than their wooden counterparts, these metal sculptures nevertheless seem to float. This duality of heft and levity, precarity, and monumentality illustrates the principle Mosley has termed “weight in space,” in which unwieldy materials are sculpted and arranged to appear to levitate. The translation from wood to bronze only underscores the works’ semblance of weightlessness.
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“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.”
“The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is proud to work with this incredible world-renowned and Pittsburgh-based artist” said Anastasia James, Director of Galleries & Public Art for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “We welcome everyone to view these monumental works while in the Cultural District.”
This exhibition is curated by Anastasia James, Director of Galleries & Public Art-Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in collaboration with Karma, New York, NY.
