Black and white portrait of a man with short hair and a serious expression, wearing a collared shirt, with sculptures or models in the background, and text "Arny Nadler" in the bottom left corner.

ARNY NADLER

Adaptations

April 4-July 12, 2025

Bruno David is pleased to present Adaptations, an exhibition by artist Arny Nadler. This is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

In this new series, Nadler’s work explores ideas of wholeness in physical and psychological forms. In clay and ink, he contemplates the body’s precarity and its ability to adapt. Nadler says: “These simultaneously heroic and absurd forms question our fixed notions of defeat and triumph. In the face of danger, desire, or even loss, theirs is a system that adjusts toward survival.”

Many works begin as individual parts that are eventually grafted together in a manner that nods at structural order but disregards anatomical and proportional correctness. Irregular outgrowths in the material signal erratic germination or atrophy—a misfiguration of appendages. The resulting forms acknowledge the limitations of the body and flout conventional response systems. Where traditional figurative sculpture often captures a predictable motion in time and space, Nadler’s work changes as the viewer moves around it. What happens on one side might be wholly unanticipated on the other. By working against symmetry, he confronts the expectations of wholeness for the body.

Nadler has works in the permanent collection of the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art and was included in the 24th No Dead Artists exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans. Recent solo exhibitions include the Haggerty Gallery of the University of Dallas, Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2021 he was included in This Moment of Rupture, a national survey of contemporary ceramics at VisArts Art Center in Rockville, MD. Other venues include the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Newport Beach Civic Center and the Catherine Konner Sculpture Park, with reviews in Art in America and other publications. Nadler is a recipient of grants and fellowships from the George Sugarman Foundation, the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. He is an Associate Professor of Art at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis.

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Abstract sculpture with a predominantly white surface and yellow accents, displayed on a white pedestal against a gray background.

Adaptation (scaffolded), 2024 ceramic, paint, epoxy 53.5 x 19 x 18.5 inches

Abstract watercolor artwork of four human figures in black, gray, and yellow tones on white background.

Adaptation Study 29, 2025 ink on paper 18 x 24 inches

Abstract sculpture with irregular shapes in white and yellow tones displayed on a white pedestal against a gray background.

Adaptation (ossicones), 2024 ceramic, paint, epoxy 48.5 x 29 x 17 inches

Abstract watercolor painting with black, yellow, and gray tones on white background.

Adaptation Study 24, 2025 ink on paper 18 x 24 inches

Abstract watercolor painting with black, gray, and yellow tones on white background.

Adaptation Study 25, 2025 ink on paper 18 x 24 inches

INSTALLATION VIEWS

An art gallery with a large abstract sculpture in yellow and white on a pedestal and two framed abstract watercolor paintings on the wall.
A white and yellow abstract sculpture in front of two framed watercolor paintings on a white gallery wall.
Abstract sculpture with white and yellow textured surface in foreground, black and white framed artwork with abstract shape on white wall in background.
Abstract sculpture with irregular, organic shapes in white and yellow, displayed on a pedestal in an art gallery with black and white paintings in the background.
Close-up of an abstract sculpture with white and yellow textured surfaces in an art gallery, with a blurred painting in the background.
Sculpture composed of organic shapes, primarily white with yellow accents, resembling a natural formation or abstract figure, displayed on a white pedestal in a gallery setting.
Abstract sculpture resembling intertwined organic forms, primarily white with yellow accents, displayed on a white pedestal against a plain white wall.
An art gallery display featuring a yellowish, abstract sculpture in the foreground and a framed painting or print with abstract brushstrokes in black, gray, and yellow hanging on a gray wall in the background.
Abstract white and yellow sculpture in an art gallery with a framed artwork on the grey wall behind.
Two abstract sculpture art pieces on white pedestals in a blank white gallery space.
An art gallery features a tall, abstract sculpture with organic, twisted shapes on a white pedestal, and a framed artwork on the gray wall depicting a similarly abstract form.
An abstract sculpture in yellow and white colors positioned in front of a grey wall with a framed artwork featuring dark and yellow hues.