The Cleveland Museum of Art has opened "Nexus," a major retrospective of Martin Puryear featuring over 50 works, the first comprehensive survey of the artist's career in some time. The exhibition includes rarely displayed early pieces from Puryear's personal collection alongside recent works, organized in consultation with the 84-year-old artist. Highlights include the titular 1979 piece "Nexus" made of Alaskan yellow cedar, and other works like "Night and Day" and "Alien Huddle" that showcase his mastery of wood and cold-molding techniques.
This retrospective matters because it provides a long-overdue full view of Puryear's evolution from his early reaction against industrial minimalism to his sustained, varied exploration of wood as a living material. At a time when craft-based approaches are more common, the exhibition underscores how Puryear's devotion to woodworking—using techniques like cold-molding borrowed from boat-building—has remained both consistent and innovative over decades. The show's open arrangement highlights the spiral-like connections across his career, offering fresh context for understanding one of America's most important living sculptors.