"Materials and ideas are all around us. My biggest challenge in making art is sorting and editing this multitude of possibilities. While engaging in this process I am constantly moving between two extremes: chaos and order. Where there is too much of one I introduce the other. The path between the two is what makes the process interesting to me.

Initially realized in the form of furniture; my benches and chairs were both functional and sculptural. However, over the years I have expanded my repertoire to include other subjects such as whitetail deer, clothing, quilts, game boards, toys, and variations on the human figure. Like my furniture, these familiar objects are constructed with unexpected materials and often with irony.

Within these common themes I reference our cultural landscape by using materials that others have overlooked. We live in an increasingly disposable world, with an increasing rate of consumption. Broken things are not fixed but rather thrown away. I resurrect these discarded elements and alloy them into sculptural forms. The individual pieces that make up the whole are not immediately recognizable but have an inherent history of other utility.

My purpose is to bring new value to these overlooked materials, to create a new form that is greater than just the sum of its parts. I aim to make positive connections between my art and my audience."

- Gordon Chandler

About the Artist:

Gordon Chandler has been living and working in Carrollton, Georgia for over thirty years. Originally from Massachusetts, Chandler moved south after receiving his BFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University. He started W&P Builders in 1976, a construction company that manufactured welded steel woodstoves, and began equipping the studio that he still occupies today.

While Chandler was originally recognized for his functional pieces, he has since expanded his repertoire to include more sculptural work, such as kimonos fashioned from steel drums, and even some larger than life figurative works. Much of his work is inspired by traditional Southern collectibles; trophy deer heads, quilts and toys.

The astounding diversity of his pieces, largely constructed from welded steel, demonstrates Chandler’s expansive knowledge of his materials and the possibilities they present.

He is currently represented by Ann Nathan Gallery in Chicago, IL; Leslie Ferrin Gallery in Lenox, MA; Rymer Gallery in Nashville, TN; the Gallery of Functional Art in Santa Monica, CA; and Twist Gallery in both Portland, OR and Seattle, WA.