Tom Joyce

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1956, the oldest of four siblings, Joyce attributes accompanying his father on summer archeological excavations conducted for the University of Oklahoma in the 1960s as a significant influence toward choosing a life of working with his hands. Joyce stated in a 2008 lecture at the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago: "As a pre-teen adolescent, unearthing disparate shards of once complete objects, made from diverse materials, and attempting to visualize the whole form from fragments, has instructed my practice as an artist to the present day."{{cite web|last1=Joyce|first1=Tom|title=A Life of Iron|url=http://segal.northwestern.edu/news-events/events/archive/tom-joyce-life-iron.html#.Vti6RMfOOi4|website=Segal Design Institute|publisher=Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University|accessdate=3 March 2016}} When his family moved to El Rito in Northern New Mexico in 1970, at age 14 Joyce began an informal apprenticeship with neighbor Peter Wells, a letterpress printer and blacksmith. Joyce learned to handset type on foot-operated 19th century printing presses and was taught the rudiments of hand forging while assisting Wells on the restoration of historic printing equipment for the Museum of New Mexico's Print Shop and Bindery.{{cite web|title=Introduction: Print Shop|url=http://www.palaceofthegovernors.org/PrintShop/intro.html|website=Palace of the Governors|publisher=Palace Press}} At 16, after three summers of working with Wells, Joyce was offered the blacksmith shop when Wells relocated his printing business, the former Sunflower Press. Joyce quit high school to devote himself full-time to learning the trade and developed a classically oriented curriculum of studying historic ironwork in the storage collections of New Mexico's many museums. He supported himself through a wide range of commissions from farmers, ranchers, builders, architects, designers, and other artists.

In 1977 Joyce moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, establishing a larger studio to design and produce contemporary objects for homes, architecture, and public art. He initiated an apprenticeship program in 1979 that offered training to students from the U.S. and abroad. A McCune Foundation grant received in 1996 expanded the program to include "at risk" middle and high school students, giving New Mexico youth an opportunity to learn metalworking techniques in free, after-school classes.

Since Joyce's first lecture on his work at the University of Wisconsin, De Pere in 1982, he has presented at numerous institutions, universities and college campuses throughout the United States and abroad. As an invited U.S. delegate, panelist, and keynote speaker, he has participated in conferences and symposia in Canada, Czech Republic, Belgium, England, Finland, Ireland, Italy, South Africa and Sweden. In 1989, while lecturing at the First International Festival of Iron in Cardiff, Wales, Joyce, along with German artist Achim Kuhn, were given the Highest Honorary Fellowship into the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths with the Addy Taylor Cup. It was the first time the award had been given to a non-British blacksmith since the charter was formed in 1571.{{cite web|title=The Company|url=https://blacksmithscompany.co.uk/}}

Throughout the 1990s, Joyce gradually reduced the number of commissions to focus more exclusively on series of work for galleries, including folded bowls based on formal geometric proportions, wall pieces made from remnant material accumulated from his previous commission works, and sculpture incorporating plaster, books, newspaper, wood and iron. In 1996, eighty works of art were exhibited in a mid-career retrospective, Tom Joyce: Twenty Years, organized by the National Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, the first major survey of the artist's work.{{cite web|title=Master Metalsmiths|url=https://www.metalmuseum.org/|website=Metal Museum|publisher=National Ornamental Metal Museum|accessdate=8 March 2016}}

In 2001, Joyce began exploratory working relationships with several forging and casting facilities to realize sculpture and drawings on a larger scale. In an ongoing series of work titled Sotto Voce,{{cite journal|last1=Reed|first1=Arden|title=Tom Joyce at Evo|journal=Art in America|date=April 2006|page=168}} alluding to the hidden origins of the material he utilizes, Joyce conceptually references the part industrial blacksmiths perform within the current era since the 19th century industrial revolution.{{cite journal|last1=Cook-Romero|first1=Elizabeth|title=Tom Joyce: Forging Ahead, Looking to the Past|journal=Pasatiempo (Santa Fe New Mexican)|date=October 13, 2006|pages=44–46}}

Working hands-on in various industrial settings, multi-ton remnants from parts being manufactured for multinational corporations, government agencies, and military forces around the world are forged into sculptures that appear at first as soft as clay. Cutting, folding and eroding the material transforms what were once semi-recognizable shapes, into sculptures that refer to the parent material's current use, wherever it may be employed in the world.{{cite web|last1=Whitney|first1=Kathleen|title=Tom Joyce: The Iron Iceberg|url=http://tomjoycestudio.com/pdf/Tom-Joyce-The-Iron-Iceberg-Sculpture-Magazine-December-2008.pdf|website=Tom Joyce Studio|publisher=Sculpture magazine|accessdate=5 March 2016}}

{{Gallery

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|File:Bloom III (2005).jpg|Bloom III (2005)

Forged high carbon steel

28" x 30" x 30"

|File:Bloom III, detail (2005).jpg|Bloom III, detail (2005)

Forged high carbon steel

28" x 30" x 30"

|File:Stack IV (2014).JPG|Stack IV (2014)

Forged high carbon steel

108" x 46" x 46" (45,000 lbs)

|File:Stack IV, detail (2014).JPG|Stack IV, detail (2014)

Forged high carbon steel

108" x 46" x 46" (45,000 lbs)

}}

{{Gallery

|width=160 | height=170

|align=center

||Thicket (2010/2015)

Mint Museum{{cite web|title=Ten Commissions, Five Years, One Celebration: New Tom Joyce sculpture will commemorate both history and future|url=https://www.mintmuseum.org/news/ten-commissions-five-years-one-celebration/|website=Mint Museum|accessdate=23 March 2016}}

Cast iron, stainless steel

94" x 94" x 94"

|File:Two to One (2007, 2014), Museum of Art and Design.jpg|Two to One (2007/2014)

Museum of Arts and Design{{cite web|last1=Coirier|first1=Lisa|title=Sculpture dedication: Two to One by Tom Joyce in NYC|url=http://tlmagazine.com/two-one-tom-joyce-nyc/|website=TL magazine|publisher=TL magazine/Pro Materia|accessdate=1 March 2016}}

Forged stainless steel

30" x 360" x 84"

|File:Aftershock, James Kelly Contemporary.jpg|Aftershock (2014){{cite web|last1=Carver|first1=Jon|title=Tom Joyce: "Aftershock" at James Kelly Contemporary|url=http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1447885543&archive=&start_from=&ucat=32&page=reviews|website=art ltd. magazine|publisher=art ltd.|accessdate=12 March 2016}}

Exhibition view

James Kelly Contemporary

|File:Aureole I & II (2015).jpg|Aureole I & II (2015)

Forged high carbon steel

75" x 75" x 8" (6,492 lbs) &

74" x 74" x 7" (5,660 lbs)

}}

Exhibiting internationally since 1981, Joyce's work has been shown at the National Museum Cardiff; Stadt Galerie, Lünen, Germany; Graf-Zeppelin Haus, Friedrichshafen, Germany; Exposición Central, Guadalajara, Mexico; Lounais-Suomen Käsi-ja Taideteollisuusoppilaitos, Mynämäki, Finland; Steiglitz Museum of Applied Arts, Moscow, Russia; and Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France.

In the US, Joyce has exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York; Alfred University Art Museum, Alfred, New York; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Minneapolis Institute of Art; National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.; Detroit Institute of Arts; Houston Museum of Contemporary Craft; Museum of Fine Arts; New Mexico Museum of Art and Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Albuquerque Museum; Luce Foundation Center for American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina; National Metal Museum, Memphis, Tennessee; and the Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, New York.

Permanent public collections of Joyce's work are held at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum{{cite web|last1=Friedman|first1=Jordan|title=A Look at the Museum's Memorial Hall|url=https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/look-museums-memorial-hall}}{{cite web|last1=Berkovitch|first1=Ellen|title=Writing on the Wall: Tom Joyce Fabricates for the National September 11 Memorial Museum|url=http://adobeairstream.com/art/writing-on-the-wall-tom-joyce-fabricates-for-the-national-september-11-memorial-museum/|website=Adobe Airstream|accessdate=23 March 2016}} New York, New York; Museum of Arts and Design; Smithsonian Institution,{{cite web|title=Tom Joyce|url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=27557|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|accessdate=23 March 2016}} Washington, DC; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts; New Mexico Museum of Art; Luce Foundation Center for American Art,{{cite web|title=Luce Foundation Center for American Art: Folded Bowl, Tom Joyce|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/folded-bowl-58168}} Smithsonian American Art Museum; Mint Museum; National Metal Museum; Museum of Fine Arts; Fuller Craft Museum,{{cite web|title=Iron Twenty Ten: A Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Blacksmithing|url=http://fullercraft.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/FCM_2012_Iron.pdf|website=Fuller Craft Museum|accessdate=23 March 2016}} Brockton, Massachusetts; and Yale University Art Gallery,{{cite web|title=Modern and Contemporary Art: Printer's Chase, Tom Joyce|url=http://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/174389|website=Yale University Art Gallery|accessdate=23 March 2016}} New Haven, Connecticut.

• 2013 - John Michael Kohler Art/Industry Residency{{cite web|title=John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry|url=https://artsindustry.org/artist-in-residence/joyce-tom/}}
• 2011 - United States Artists Windgate Fellow{{cite web|title=Fellows: Tom Joyce, USA Windgate Fellow|url=http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellows/tom-joyce|website=United States Artists|accessdate=1 March 2016}}
• 2009 - Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts{{cite web|url=http://www.nmarts.org/governors-awards-for-excellence-in-the-arts-2009-recipients.html|title=Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts 2009|work=nmarts.org}}
• 2007 - Artist of the Year, Santa Fe Gallery Association
• 2006 - Distinguished Artist of the Year Award, Rotary Foundation for the Arts
• 2003 - John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
• 2003 - Aileen Osborn Webb Award, American Craft Council's College of Fellows{{cite web|title=Aileen Osborn Webb Awards|url=http://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/aileen-osborn-webb-awards|website=American Craft Council|publisher=American Craft Council|accessdate=1 March 2016}}
• 2002 - John Michael Kohler Art/Industry Residency
• 1996 - Honorary Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Art and Science of Blacksmithing, Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America{{cite web|title=Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America|url=http://abana.org/|website=ABANA|accessdate=1 March 2016}}

• 2014 - Honorary Doctorate, Santa Fe University of Art and Design{{cite web|title=Acclaimed Artist, Designer, and Blacksmith Tom Joyce to Deliver Commencement Address at SFUAD|url=http://santafeuniversity.edu/news/acclaimed-artist-designer-and-blacksmith-tom-joyce-to-deliver-commencement/|website=Santa Fe University of Art and Design|publisher=Santa Fe University of Art and Design|accessdate=3 March 2016}}
• 2009 - Commissioned to design and execute the MacArthur Foundation Award for International Justice awarded to Richard J. Goldstone{{cite web|url=http://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/justice-richard-goldstone-receives-macarthur-award-for-international-justice|title=Justice Richard Goldstone Receives MacArthur Award for International Justice|work=macfound.org}}{{cite web|url=http://www.macfound.org/videos/174|title=Richard Goldstone Accepts MacArthur Award for International Justice|work=macfound.org}}
• 2008 - Commissioned to design and execute the inaugural MacArthur Foundation Award for International Justice awarded to Kofi Annan{{cite web|url=https://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/former-un-secretary-general-kofi-annan-receives-macarthur-award-for-international-justice|title=Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Receives MacArthur Award for International Justice|work=macfound.org}}
• 2007 - Featured in the PBS television documentary series, Craft in America{{cite web|title=Tom Joyce|url=http://www.craftinamerica.org/artists/tom-joyce/|website=Craft in America|accessdate=1 March 2016}}
• 2007 - 21st Century Luminarias and Legacy Project, New Mexico Community Foundation
• 2004 - Smithsonian Institution's Oral History Program interview, Archives of American Art{{cite web|url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-tom-joyce-11849|title=Oral history interview with Tom Joyce, 2004 November 18-19|author=Archives of American Art|work=si.edu}}
• 1989 - Highest Honorary Fellowship into the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths, London, England

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.radiusbooks.org/all-books/p/tom-joyce-works-2002-2017?rq=tom%20Joyce "Tom Joyce: Works 2002-2017" published by Radius Books]
• {{Official website|tomjoycestudio.com}}
• [https://issuu.com/trendmagnm/docs/trend_summer_lookbook_flipbook/138 "Iron Will, Sculptor Tom Joyce", Christina Proctor]

{{American Craft Council}}

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Category:1956 births

Category:Living people

Category:American metalsmiths

Category:MacArthur Fellows

Category:Artists from Tulsa, Oklahoma

Category:People from El Rito, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

Category:Artists from Santa Fe, New Mexico