DAVID FRIEDHEIM

About the Artist

David Friedheim’s mother was a painter and his father was a classical musician. He received his BA from the State University of New York at Binghamton and his MFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, MD. He has exhibited in many solo and group shows throughout the USA. He has built artwork on commission for private and public clients including such firms as Bill Graham Presents. In 1999 he was a founding member of The Crucible, a school devoted to linking the arts, industry and community in Berkeley, CA. Currently he lives in Baltimore where he co-directs the collaborative art group Grendel’s Mother along with his wife and fellow artists Trisha Kyner.

Artist's Statement

I wish to make sculptures that will require little explanation yet inspire contemplation, sculptures that will capture my viewer’s interest, sculptures people will enjoy. Most important to my work is the element of play – serious, creative play. Generally I fabricate my sculptures directly in steel without preliminary drawings. I bend, fold, hammer, grind, file, cut, bolt and weld pieces of steel together assembling them into fantastic creatures, human figures and functional objects like furniture and BBQs. These personages have ranged in size from only two or three inches tall to over twenty feet in height. My influences range from Picasso and the Flintstones to Pre-Colombian ceramics, North West Coast Totem Poles and the sculpture of Gislebertus. My studio is like the inside of my mind. It is a place where I think with my hands as well as my eyes. There is no theory or other activity that can replace, substitute or presuppose this for me. The experience of actually making things is the process to my creative growth.