Arny Nadler (born 1969) is a St. Louis-based sculptor who makes painted ceramic sculptures and ink drawings that explore the body in a state of ambiguous metamorphosis. His Firstlings series, begun in 2017, has been followed since 2024 by the Adaptations series. Nadler has described the resulting forms as “simultaneously heroic and absurd.”
Many of the sculptures begin as separate parts that Nadler joins in ways that suggest a structural order while ignoring anatomical and proportional accuracy, and irregular growths read as distorted appendages. The works resist symmetry and change as the viewer moves around them, unsettling the expectation that a body should be whole. Nadler worked mainly in steel for many years, building large outdoor works such as Whelm (2012), a permanent 45-foot site-specific sculpture made from rebar at Gallery 210, University of Missouri–St. Louis, before turning to clay.
Nadler earned a BFA from Washington University School of Art in 1991 and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1994.
He is an associate professor of art at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, where he coordinates the sculpture area; he chaired undergraduate studio art from 2013 to 2018 and returned to that role in July 2026. Recent solo exhibitions include shows at Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis; Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois; and the University of Dallas. The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, Missouri, acquired three Firstling sculptures in 2019. He has received a Regional Arts Commission fellowship (2013), a George Sugarman Foundation grant (2007), and residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2000), and the Ucross Foundation, Wyoming (2025).
Bruno David Gallery began representing Nadler in June 2019. His first solo exhibition with the gallery, Firstlings: Sculptures + Works on Paper (31 October – 23 December 2020), was accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Terry Suhre. In 2023 he showed the installation Firstling Redux in the gallery’s Window on Forsyth, and his solo exhibition Adaptations ran from 4 April to 21 June 2025. He has also appeared in gallery group exhibitions such as Black Light (2023).
SELECTED WORKS
Arny Nadler Adaptation (looking back), 2024 Ceramic, acrylic paint, epoxy 36 1/4 x 11 3/4 x 12 1/2 in. (92.1 x 29.8 x 31.8 cm)
Arny Nadler Adaptation (ossicones), 2024 Ceramic, acrylic paint, epoxy 48 1/2 x 29 x 17 in. (123.2 x 73.7 x 43.2 cm)
Arny Nadler Adaptation (scaffolded), 2024 Ceramic, acrylic paint, epoxy 53 1/2 x 19 x 18 1/2 in. (135.9 x 48.3 x 47 cm)
Arny Nadler Adaptation (vertical bloom), 2024 Ceramic, acrylic paint, epoxy 50 x 16 x 13 1/2 in. (127 x 40.6 x 34.3 cm)
Arny Nadler Firstling no. 6, 2017 Ceramic, acrylic paint 28 1/4 x 12 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (71.8 x 31.8 x 19.7 cm)
Arny Nadler Firstling no. 20, 2019 Latex painted ceramic 25 x 13 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (63.5 x 33.7 x 21.6 cm)
Arny Nadler Firstling no. 18, 2019 Latex painted ceramic 24 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 9 in. (62.2 x 31.8 x 22.9 cm)
Arny Nadler Firstling no. 11, 2017 Latex painted ceramic 32 x 13 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (81.3 x 34.3 x 29.2 cm)
Arny Nadler Firstling no. 23, 2019 Latex painted ceramic 24 3/4 x 16 x 11 in. (62.9 x 40.6 x 27.9 cm)
Arny Nadler Firstling no. 24, 2020 Latex painted ceramic 31 1/2 x 20 x 12 1/4 in. (80 x 50.8 x 31.1 cm)
EXHIBITIONS
BRUNO DAVID GALLERY, ST. LOUIS
Firstlings: Sculptures + Works on Paper
Solo exhibition
31 October – 23 December 2020
NEWS
APPOINTMENT
Chair of undergraduate studio art
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, St. Louis, July 2026
GROUP EXHIBITION
26th San Angelo North American Ceramic Competition
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas, April 2026
PUBLICATIONS
SELECTED PRESS
FEATURE
‘Class of COVID’: How faculty are preparing for the fall
The Source (WashU), Diane Toroian Keaggy, September 2020
REVIEW
Review: Nadler’s ‘Infrastructure’ holds up very well
St. Louis Beacon, Ivy Cooper, December 2010