Cultural DistrictClick here to go back to the home page

Mosley’s practice of “listening to wood” inspired the exhibition’s title Touching the Earth, a phrase borrowed from the writer bell hooks. The exhibition features eight bronzes recently cast from wood sculptures Mosley made between 1996 and 2021. The bronze sculptures range from human scale to the monumental Gate III, while varied patinas and textures preserve the original surfaces as well as the tactile presence of his hand and chisel. Mosley drew on influences as varied as modernist sculpture, his collection of West African masks, and the genre of jazz to realize a deeply humanist body of sculptures through distillation, invention, and improvisation.

“Iconic Site” Fort Duquesne Blvd/9th St.: Repetitive Reference (2020), Region in Suspension (2020), Benin Strut (2020), Inverted Dancer (2020)

Penn Ave/8th St. Entrance: Inclination (2020), Geometric Plateau (2020), Southwestern Suite (2020)

Near 9th St. Entrance: Gate III (2022) 

About the Artist

Thaddeus Mosley (1926–2026) was a Pittsburgh-based artist who worked primarily with wood. Since the 1950s, Mosley created sculptures assembled from hand-carved pieces of wood—including walnut, basswood, and hickory—often salvaged from fallen timber and native Pennsylvanian hardwoods, incorporating knots and their natural gradations. Immersed in this process for more than seven decades, the artist developed a distinctive language of expressive abstract forms rooted in the organic qualities of his material.

Thaddeus Mosley: Touching the Earth is curated by Public Art Fund Assistant Curator Jenée-Daria Strand and organized for Arts Landing at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust by Anastasia James, Director of Galleries & Public Art. Thaddeus Mosley: Touching the Earth was originally presented by Public Art Fund in New York City, NY.

Support for Gate III at Arts Landing provided in part by the Fleischner Family Charitable Foundation.

© Thaddeus Mosley. Courtesy The Estate of Thaddeus Mosley and Karma