Tom Sachs is an American contemporary artist and sculptor best known for his elaborate recreations of various Modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another. Sachs re-envisions modern iconography, popular and industrial inventions of the 20th century. This contemporary revision of the nativity scene received great attention and demonstrated Sachs’ interest in the phenomena of consumerism, branding, and the cultural fetishization of products.
Born in 1966 in New York, he studied architecture at London’s Architectural Association School of Architecture. Around 1990 he found a studio in the disappearing machinery district downtown. His studio, Allied Cultural Prosthetics, took its name from the previous tenant—Allied Machine Exchange—implying that contemporary culture had become nothing but a prosthetic for real culture.
In an early show he made Knoll office furniture out of phone books and duct tape; later, he recreated Le Corbusier’s 1952 Unité d’Habitation using only foamcore and a glue gun. Other projects have included his versions of various Cold War masterpieces, like the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module, and the bridge of the battleship USS Enterprise. And because no engineering project is more complex and pervasive than the corporate ecosystem, he’s done versions of those, too, including a McDonald’s he built using plywood, glue, assorted kitchen appliances. He’s also done Hello Kitty and her friends in materials ranging from foamcore to bronze.
In fact, Tom Sachs doesn’t refrain from taking major luxury brands and ripping them out of their contexts. The themes central to his universe focus on American culture and society, which he treats with a heavy dose of humor and sarcasm. Attentive to detail and the finished result, he executes his work using both high and low materials. Most often, his models are created out of foam board, and some of his sculptures are cast in bronze.
A lot has been made of the conceptual underpinnings of these sculptures: how Sachs’ sampling capitalist culture, remixing, dubbing and spitting it back out again, so that the results are transformed and transforming. All the steps that led up to the end result are always on display. On a practical level, this means that all seams, joints, screws or for that matter anything holding stuff together, like foamcore and plywood, are left exposed. Nothing is erased, sanded away, or rendered invisible. On a more philosophical level, this means that nothing Sachs makes is ever finished. Like any good engineering project, everything can always be stripped down, stripped out, redesigned and improved.
Tom Sachs lives and works in New York.
Year | Exhibition Title | Gallery/Museum | Solo/Group | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | American Handmade Paintings | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
2014 | 5 Year Anniversary Group Show | Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Group | |
2013 | STORE | 8/ Art Gallery/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | Solo | |
2013 | Booster, Art Sound Machine | Marta Herford Museum, Herford, Germany | Group | |
2013 | Piston Head: Artists Engage the Automobile | Venus Over Manhattan, Miami, Florida. | Group | |
2013 | Meanwhile…Suddenly and Then | 12th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France | Group | |
2013 | Engagement | Artzuid, Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Group | |
2013 | From Picasso to Koons: The Artist at Jeweler | Bass Museum of Art, Miami | Group | |
2013 | Disaster | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France | Group | |
2013 | Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture | The Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto | Group | |
2013 | La Derniere Vague | La Friche de Belle Mai, Marseille, France | Group | |
2013 | Second Season | MUSEUM, New York | Group | |
2013 | Merci Mercy | 980 Madison Ave 3rd Floor, New York | Group | |
2012 | Nautical Challenge and Other Voodoo | Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO | Solo | |
2012 | Tom Sachs Space Program: MARS | Park Avenue Armory, New York | Solo | |
2012 | Untitled (Giotto’s O) | Sperone Westwater, Lugano, Switzerland | Group | |
2012 | For the Martian Chronicles | L&M Arts, Los Angeles | Group | |
2012 | White: Marble and Paint, From Antiquity to Now | Robilant & Voena, London, England | Group | |
2012 | Regarding Warhol: Sixty Years, Fifty Artists | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | Group | |
2012 | Garden of Eden | Palais de Tokyo, Paris | Group | |
2012 | to keep us in the dark ages of color | DIEAUSSTELLUNGSSTRASSE, Vienna | Group | |
2012 | St. Moritz Art Masters | Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, St Moritz, Switzerland | Group | |
2012 | Vik Muniz, Tom Sachs | Galerie Gian Enzo Sperone, Sent, Swtizerland. | Group | |
2012 | Transmission LA: AV Club | Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. | Group | |
2012 | Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts | The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York | Group | |
2012 | Brucennial 2012 | New York | Group | |
2012 | Portraits / Self-Portraits from the 16th to the 21st Century | Sperone Westwater, New York | Group | |
2011 | Tom Sachs WORK | Sperone Westwater, New York, NY | Solo | |
2011 | Tom Sachs- A Random Selection of Significant Drawings 2003-2010 | Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
2011 | Astrup Fearnley Collection | Bienal Pavilion, Sao Paulo Bienal, Sao Paulo, Brazil | Group | |
2011 | Fresh Kills | Anonymous Gallery, Mexico City | Group | |
2011 | NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration | National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. | Group | |
2011 | Space. About a Dream | Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria | Group | |
2011 | Happy Tech- Macchine dal Volto Umano | Palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna, Italy | Group | |
2010 | Hunters and Gatherers | Gian Enzo Sperone, Sent, Switzerland | Group | |
2010 | Popular: Brands, Symbols, Icons 1960-2010 | Galerie Thomas Modern, Munich, Germany | Group | |
2010 | Untitled (No Show) | Spencer Brownstone, New York, NY | Group | |
2010 | Divine Comedy Exhibition | Sotheby’s, New York, NY | Group | |
2010 | Trunk Show, | Colette, Paris, France | Group | |
2010 | Sisley Art Project- The Andy Warhol Museum | Palazzo Bovara, Milan, Italy | Group | |
2010 | 12th International Architecture Exhibition | Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy | Group | |
2010 | artCRUSH | Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado | Group | |
2010 | Wings II | Deutsche Bank Kunstraum, Salzburg, Austria | Group | |
2010 | JOYRIDE | Dash Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2010 | Robot Dreams | The Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland | Group | |
2010 | Make Yourself at Home | 7Eleven Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2010 | XXL | 1000 Eventi, Milan, Italy | Group | |
2010 | Wings: The Wing in Contemporary Art | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria | Group | |
2010 | Second Main | Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France | Group | |
2009 | Tom Sachs: Cameras | Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT | Solo | |
2009 | Skateboards | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria | Solo | |
2009 | Bike Rides: The Exhibition | Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 26 | Group | |
2009 | Small packages | Art Production Fund LAB/American Standard Gallery, New York | Group | |
2009 | Stages | Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France | Group | |
2009 | A House Is Not A Home | BC Magazine, Paris, France | Group | |
2009 | Sculpture Show | Sperone Westwater, New York | Group | |
2009 | Words are Diamonds | Laleh June Galerie, Basel, Switzerland | Group | |
2009 | SIGN/AGE: Part Three: Fight the Power | Armand Bartos Fine Art, New York, NY | Group | |
2009 | Better History | The American Standard Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2009 | Schizmo | 10 Vyner Street, London, UK | Group | |
2009 | The Garden At 4AM | Gana Art Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2008 | Gold & Plywood | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
2008 | Tom Sachs: Bronze Collection | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
2008 | Tom Sachs: Bronze Collection | Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO | Solo | |
2008 | Tom Sachs: Bronze Collection | Lever House, New York, NY | Solo | |
2008 | Tom Sachs: Animals | Sperone Westwater, New York, NY | Solo | |
2008 | The American Standard Gallery (Self-Titled Show) | The American Standard Gallery, Miami, FA | Group | |
2008 | The Lines of the Hand (Las Lineas De La Mano) | University Museum of Contemporary Art of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Coyoacan, Mexico | Group | |
2008 | Wall Rockets: Contemporary Artists and Ed Ruscha | FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY | Group | |
2008 | Summer Exhibition | Sperone Westwater, New York, NY | Group | |
2008 | I Won't Grow Up | Cheim & Read, New York, NY | Group | |
2008 | Dear Velo | Bicycle Film Festival and Partners & Spade, New York, NY | Group | |
2007 | Space Program | Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA | Solo | |
2007 | Tom Sachs: Logjam tour | Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA | Solo | |
2007 | Tom Sachs: Islandia | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
2007 | Contemporary, Cool, and Collected | The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina | Group | |
2007 | Delicious: Sylvie Fleury, Bernhard Martin, Tom Sachs | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria | Group | |
2007 | Timer: Intimita/Intimacy | L’arte Contemporanea Si Guarda Dentro, Milan, Italy | Group | |
2007 | Disorder in the House | Vanhaerents Art Collection, Belgium | Group | |
2007 | Branded and on Display | Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois | Group | |
2007 | Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, IL | Group | |
2006 | Tom Sachs | Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy | Solo | |
2006 | Tom Sachs – Survey: America, Modernism, Fashion Astrup Fearnley | Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway | Solo | |
2006 | Fantastic Politics: Art in Times of Crisis | Nasjonalmuseet For Kunst Arkitektur, Og Design, Norway | Group | |
2006 | Freeze! A Selection of Works from a New York Collection | Robilant + Voena + Sperone, London | Group | |
2006 | Only the Paranoid Survive | Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art | Group | |
2006 | Bucolica: The Contemporary Landscape | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Salzburg, Austria | Group | |
2006 | New York, New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Cinema, Performance, Photograph and Video | Grimaldi Forum, Monaco | Group | |
2006 | Summer Exhibition | Sperone Westwater, New York, NY | Group | |
2006 | This is America! Contemporary Art and American Photorealism | Central Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands | Group | |
2005 | Vanity | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria | Solo | |
2005 | Tom Sachs: McDonalds | Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo | Solo | |
2005 | Superstars: The Celebrity Factor, From Warhol to Madonna (Superstars -Das Prinzip Prominenz. Von Warhol bis Madonna) | Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria | Group | |
2005 | Highlights | John Berggreun Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Group | |
2005 | ex.05.01.06103 | The Cartin Collection, Hartford, CT | Group | |
2005 | Return to Space (Ruckkehr ins All) | Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany | Group | |
2005 | A Knock at the Door | South Street Seaport Museum Melville Gallery and Cooper Union, New York, NY | Group | |
2005 | Minimalism and After IV: New Acquisitions | Daimler Contemporary Art Collection, Berlin, Germany | Group | |
2005 | Extreme Abstraction | Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY | Group | |
2005 | Herron Sculpture Biennial Invitational | Herron Galleries, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN | Group | |
2005 | Homestyle | Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2005 | 3D - Die Dritte Dimension | Galerie Haas & Fuchs, Berlin, Germany | Group | |
2004 | Tom Sachs: Dedicated to the Memory of Ben Plummer 1968-2004 | Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO | Solo | |
2004 | Tom Sachs: Private Wealth Management | Kunstraum Deutsche Bank, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria | Solo | |
2004 | Connecticut | Sperone Westwater, New York, NY | Solo | |
2004 | …Surprise! | Galleria Cardi, Milan, Italy | Group | |
2004 | Will Boys Be Boys? Questioning Adolescent Masculinity in Contemporary Art | The Salina Art Center, Salina, KS | Group | |
2004 | Recent Acquisitions: Contemporary Works (Acquisitions Recentes. Oeuvre Cotemporaines) | Musee National d'Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France | Group | |
2004 | Arti & Architettura | Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy | Group | |
2004 | Terminal 5 | John Fitzgerald Kennedy International Airport, Queens, NY | Group | |
2004 | Territorio Livre | 26 Bienal de Sao Paulo, Pavilhao Ciccillo Matarazzo, Parque do Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo, Brazil | Group | |
2003 | Holiday Spectacular | Printed Matter, Inc., New York, NY | Solo | |
2003 | Tom Sachs, New Paintings | Galleria Cardi, Milan, Italy | Solo | |
2003 | Nutsy’s | Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany | Solo | |
2003 | Disaster, (Featuring Andy Warhol) | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
2003 | Nutsy’s | The Bohen Foundation, New York, NY | Solo | |
2003 | Painting Lesson | Galleria Cardi & Co, Milan, Italy | Group | |
2003 | Greetings from New York: A Painting Show | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria | Group | |
2003 | Perpetual Bliss: Form, Symbol and Material in Contemporary Sculpture | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Group | |
2003 | Materials, Metaphors, Narratives: Work by Six Contemporary Artists | Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY | Group | |
2003 | Everyday Aesthetics - Works from the Astrup Fearnley Collection | Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway | Group | |
2003 | Skulptur 03 | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac and Max Gandolph Bibliothek Universitat Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria | Group | |
2003 | Teddybar & Co - Searching for the Myth in Art (Teddybar & Co - Die Suche Nach Mythen in der Kunst) | Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna, Austria | Group | |
2003 | Bull's Eye: Works from the Astrup Fearnley Collection (Pletskud: Vaerker Fra Astrup Fearnley Samlingen) | ARKEN Museum for Moerne Kunst, Ishoj, Denmark | Group | |
2002 | Le Corbusier B Sides | Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA | Solo | |
2002 | The Art of the Game: From Klee to Boetti (L'Arte Del Gioco. Da Klee A Boetti) | Museo Archeologico Regionale, Aosta, Italy | Group | |
2002 | Two Zero Zero Two | DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art Athens, Greece | Group | |
2002 | SK8 On The Wall | Rocket Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | Group | |
2002 | Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age | 313 Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2002 | Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art | The Jewish Museum New York, NY | Group | |
2002 | Outdoor: A Group Exhibition | Saint Petersberg, FL | Group | |
2002 | POPjack: Warhol to Murakami | Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO | Group | |
2002 | Separations: Manufacturing Art/Skateboard | 222 Gallery, Philadelphia | Group | |
2001 | Selector | Galleria Cardi, Milan, Italy | Solo | |
2001 | White | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
2001 | Lamps, Bitch Lounge & Quarter Screws | A/D Gallery, New York, NY | Solo | |
2001 | Camera Works: The Photographic Impulse in Contemporary Art | Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2001 | Art at the Edge of the Law | Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art Ridgefield, CT | Group | |
2001 | Andy Warhol Knives | Sperone Westwater, NYC | Group | |
2001 | My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation | Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA | Group | |
2001 | Ironical Instinct | Galleria Cardi, Milan, Italy | Group | |
2001 | Making the Making | Apex Art, New York, NY | Group | |
2000 | American Bricolage | Sperone Westwater, New York, NY | Solo | |
2000 | Test Module Five (Urinal) | Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo | Solo | |
2000 | Defender | Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO | Solo | |
2000 | Toys | Kagan Martos Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
2000 | Fabula: Consumer Media and Contemporary Art | Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI | Group | |
2000 | Expressions in Wood/The Wood Show | Max Fish, New York, NY | Group | |
2000 | Demonstration Room: Ideal House | Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas Venezuela | Group | |
2000 | American Bricolage | Sperone Westwater, New York | Group | |
2000 | Hand-Made in the U.S.A. | Sprovieri Gallery, London, UK | Group | |
1999 | Haute Bricolage | Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY | Solo | |
1999 | W.W.J.B.D. and Other Smash Hits (Neue Werke) | Galerie Thaddaeus, Ropac, Salzburg, Austria | Solo | |
1999 | Stairmaster | Mont Blanc Factory, Hamburg, Germany | Solo | |
1999 | Burn Baby Burn | Mont Blanc Store, New York, NY | Solo | |
1999 | Tom Sachs | Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA | Solo | |
1999 | SONY Outsider | SITE Sante Fe, Santa Fe, NM | Solo | |
1999 | Creativity is the Enemy | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris | Solo | |
1999 | Making Change: 100 Artists Interpret the Tzedakah Box | The Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA | Group | |
1999 | Readymade Project | Wunderkammer, London, UK | Group | |
1999 | Dysfunctional Sculpture | Center Galleries, Detroit, MI | Group | |
1999 | Preparator's Pick | Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC | Group | |
1999 | Persuasion | Lombard-Fried Gallery, New York | Group | |
1999 | The Stroke: An Overview of Contemporary Painting | Exit Art, New York, NY | Group | |
1999 | Comfort Zone: Furniture by Artist | UBS Art Gallery (formerly Paine Webber Art Gallery), New York, NY | Group | |
1999 | Food for Thought | New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts, Summit, NJ | Group | |
1999 | Material Perception/Celebrating Art and Architecture: Creating a Place for People | TrizecHahn Office Properties, Bank of America Plaza Charlotte, NC | Group | |
1999 | Police | Alleged Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1999 | Paper: A Retrospective | Holly Solomon Gallery, New York | Group | |
1999 | Coup d'Etat | Alleged Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1998 | Creativity is the Enemy | Thomas Healy Gallery, New York, NY | Solo | |
1998 | Hedge | Thomas Healy Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1998 | Thinking Aloud | tour: Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK | Group | |
1998 | He Swam Down, Away | Audiello Fine Art, New York, NY | Group | |
1997 | Tom Sachs: Cultural Prosthetics | Galleria Gian Enzo Sperone, Rome | Solo | |
1997 | Cultural Prosthetics | John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Solo | |
1997 | Art on Paper 1997: Thirty-Third Annual Exhibition of Art on Paper | Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro, NC | Group | |
1997 | New York | Galleri F15, Moss, Norway | Group | |
1997 | Icons: Magnets of Meaning | The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA | Group | |
1997 | Road Show ’97 | Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1997 | Do Not Disturb (No Molestar) | Hotel Ribot, Caracas, Venezuela | Group | |
1997 | Summer Group Show | Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1997 | Group Show | John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA | Group | |
1996 | Tom Sachs | Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA | Solo | |
1996 | The Subverted Object | Ubu Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1996 | American Dreamin | Linda Kirkland Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1996 | Shred Sled Symposium | Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY | Group | |
1995 | Cultural Prosthetics | Morris-Healy Gallery, New York, NY | Solo | |
1995 | Tom Sachs | Window display, Whitney Museum of American Art, Next Door, New York, NY. | Solo | |
1995 | Occupato | Bennett Roberts Fine Art, Los Angles, CA | Group | |
1995 | Inaugural Exhibition | Paul Morris Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1994 | ICCF Windows | Barney's, New York, NY | Group | |
1994 | International Contemporary Furniture Fair | New York, NY | Group | |
1994 | Red Windows: Benefit for the Little Red School House | Barney's, New York, NY | Group | |
1994 | The Bong Show | Alleged Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1994 | Pathetic Masterworks | Alleged Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1993 | Watch Me Work | Allied Cultural Prosthetics, New York, NY. | Solo | |
1993 | Minimal Tricks | Alleged Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1992 | 10 Steps | Muranushi Lederman Inc. & Horodner Romley Gallery, New York, NY | Group | |
1992 | Exhibition | Allied Cultural Prosthetics, New York, NY | Group | |
1991 | Denied Access Parking Lot | L.A. Eats, Los Angeles, California | Group |