Caveat at Sculpture Key West in Key West, FL

Imminent at The Benini Sculpture Foundation in Johnson City, TX

Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, Mo in November 2008

Center of the Creative Arts, St. Louis, MO in April 2009

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from The Twenty-First Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition 2007-2008

“Arny Nadler’s duo, Wintering stands majestically at the top of a hill wherein the Blue Ridge Mountains create a setting perfect for his presentation. Two large-scaled, painted steel vessels referencing the utilitarian become architectural. The pair resonates as enormous artifacts, resolved, preserved, and imposing in such an elaborated scale. Meticulously crafted from hundreds of steel plates welded together, Wintering takes on several other attributes; it appears to be a woven basket, cast pottery, or fired porcelain. Nadler’s deliberate quoting of other processes that are more delicate combined with reference to the domestic (vessel, urn, and vase) is an elegant portrayal, despite a stark surface, darkness, and monumentality. That the artist titled the work Wintering is significant, as it implies physical action as opposed to a still object. This attaches a psychological complexity and inquiry into the foreboding that is articulated through objects and their emotional signifiers. In a mysterious splendor, Wintering functions as a massive aesthetic entity, while also capturing the character of psychological space through our knowledge of objects and their referents.”

Shannon Fitzgerald
Exhibition Juror
Independent Write & Curator, St. Louis, MO

Carol Knowles, The Memphis Flyer

“Nadler’s tubular-steel studies with their unexpected twists and turns are reminiscent of American David Smith’s 1950s metal calligraphy. Like the new British sculptors, including Bill Woodrow and Richard Deacon, Nadler’s artwork alludes to both engineered forms (airplane wings, crutches, clutches, and shoulder straps) and biomorphic shapes (torsos, pelvises, and rib cages). Nadler’s particular power lies in his ability to translate these elements into a pathos suggestive of classical Greek drama in some future civilization where life-forms have become a seamless combination of the mechanical and biological. These futuristic entities are sleek and swift, but they are still subject to pilot error and mechanical failure. In spite of their advanced design, they are like Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. There is daring, imagination, tragedy (and probably a bit of hubris) in these crash sites. Nadler believes there is also hope: ‘Twisted in the wreckage is more than mere failure. Through trial and error, regrouping and, most importantly, will, future attempts follow. They have to. Progress, after all, depends on it.’”

Caprice Stapley, Kansas City Star

“Steel, fiberglass mesh and latex stand in for the body in Arnold Nadler’s “Prosthetic for Wholeness”. This fantastic Leonardo DaVinci-like creation expressively addresses the frustration of physical limitations and the yearning to be whole.”

Ivy Schroeder, Riverfront Times

“Nadler’s [pieces] are heart-wrenchingly beautiful and yet painful forms. On first glance, they appear to be mere skeins of curving and knotted metal, frozen in graceful arabesques. On closer inspection, details take shape: Lines become crutches; another passage takes the form of a geriatric walker; curves terminate in standard-issue rubber stoppers. These works reference the equipment of the disabled, the structure designed to compensate for physical deficiencies.

Formally, Nadler’s works draw on the lessons of such sculptors as Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon. But they possess an added layer of oddly unsentimental pathos that makes them completely unique and effective. Nadler has received far too little exposure in St. Louis. He is an artist to watch.

Amore recent piece, “Surmount,” signals another direction Nadler’s work is taking. It’s a Leonardo da Vinci-esque flying machine that looks as if it might have carried urgent news from another world. The operator of this machine, however, has evidently crashed the craft on entry. What remains is only twisted metal and malformed wings. Again, Nadler artfully addresses the frustration of physical and mental limitations and the dream of making something whole again.”