Martha Friedman

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Martha Friedman is a New York-based sculptor who works with solid and plastic materials to form, deform and test the boundaries of the physical world. Often building towering sculptures out of unstable materials, interjected with malleable elements, the works are infused with a sense of subverted ambition, precariousness, irony, and humor. Friedman’s recent works have included collaborations with choreographers and dancers Susan Marshall and Silas Riener, extending her work into a visceral and flexible dimension, exploring material sculpture, the human body, and the relationships that can exist between the two.

Friedman began teaching at Princeton in 2009, and was appointed full time Lecturer in 2011. Friedman served as Acting Director of the Visual Arts Program 2013-14, and was appointed Director of the Program in July 2017.  She teaches introductory and advanced sculpture courses, and the program seminars for majors, providing foundation for their thesis projects.  With Susan Marshall, Friedman has twice co-taught “Body as Object”, an innovative course on the intersection of sculpture and dance. Friedman has previously taught at institutions including Cooper Union, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Wesleyan University, and Yale University.

Friedman’s work has been reviewed in publications including Art in America, Artforum, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Modern Painters, Hyperallergic and others. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at The Henry Museum, Seattle, WA (2018-2019), The Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (2017); Institute of Fine Arts New York University, New York (2016-17); Locust Projects, Miami (2015-16); Wallspace, New York (2012, 2009, 2007); the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI (2010); DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA (2010); and Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL (2010). Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, nationally and internationally. Select examples include Frieze New York Sculpture Park, curated by Tom Eccles, New York; Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome; and The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow. A solo exhibition of Friedman’s work is forthcoming at Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco.

Born in Detroit, Friedman earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998 and her MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2003. Friedman lives and works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Two Person Operating System Type 2 premieres at The Kitchen at Westbeth (163B Bank Street, 4th Floor Loft, New York City). Feb. 3 + 4, 2024; 5 PM space opens for sculpture viewing; 5:30 PM performance.

Body Matters — May 20 – July 10, 2022, Art@Bainbridge / Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ

“Everywhere and Here” — Artists Respond to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Collection, September 17 – November 20, 2021, Artspace, New Haven, CT

“Martha Friedman at Andrea Rosen Gallery” | Art in America – New York, March 11, 2017

“Gut Feeling Martha Friedman: Dancing Around Things” | Brooklyn Rail, February 1, 2017

“Two Person Operating System — Martha Friedman” | The New Yorker, March 11, 2017

Artnet Editors’ Picks | Artnet, October 25, 2016

“Artforum Critic’s Pick” | Artforum, October 19, 2016

“Reviews in Brief: Martha Friedman” | Modern Painters, February, 2016

“A Battle Between Body, Blood, and Bile Through Dance and Sculpture” | Hyperallergic, December 4, 2015