Artist Statement

Each piece in my various bodies of work emerges from humble origins, taking shape from an eccentric collection of ordinary materials that initially offer no hint of what they might become when made to live together. The final dense, tactile assemblages and free-standing sculptures present themselves with minimal clues to their complex origins. The building materials are highly considered, formally and conceptually. Yet as they come into being, my position in relation to these materials is the sometimes uncomfortable one of sustained suspense. Discovering their ultimate destiny requires curiosity-driven play—which, with such materials, is a visceral, physically demanding, and mysterious process.

Works frequently take shape from discarded (often domestic) objects as well as traditional art-making materials which I subject to all manner of chemical microclimates and mechanical pressures, to drilling and grinding and scraping and shredding. As I aggregate, cast, cut, compose, and assemble, material that had been clothed in layers of unquestioned assumptions and associations is ultimately laid bare, exposing the “guts” of the matter—often via literal cross-sections. (The idea of a conceptual miner would not be too far afield.) In so doing, I reach an ever-startling conclusion: What started as discarded junk is revealed to have formal grace, even beauty. Paradoxically, even as the history of the objects remains sedimented in the material, what emerges feels fresh, leaving the viewer free to discover the ways in which radical changes to material and presentation can reassign and revitalize meaning.

In addition to this process of deconstructive and reconstructive play, there are several other continuities that have emerged in my work. Visually, the circle is both a conceptual building block and a formalist end in itself. A circle is a sustained tension, a chord eternally straining away from its center point, and eternally drawn back from the margins to that center. The complex world of circles thus enfolds and suspends dualities, holding opposites in necessary traction. It is also an entry point, the outer rim of an inner space; whether as a sphere or a portal, it is the borderland to a world.

Curriculum Vitae

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS / PROJECTS

2024       Distance and Desire, NM Highlands University – Ray Drew Gallery, Las Vegas NM

2023       In Which the Progeny of the Hero Shapes the Dust, Museum of Art, Fort Collins, CO

2021   Cure All, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2021   ADAPT, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2020  Because the World is Round, Longmont Museum, Longmont, CO

2018  Point Blank, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2017  Time Release, Medical and Pharmaceutical Constructions, Fulginiti Gallery,
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

2016   Big Bang, Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Dallas, TX

2015   Holy Fool, grayDUCK Gallery, Austin, TX

2013   You are Here, Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Dallas, TX

2013   Circumference, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2012   Terry Maker – Reckoning, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center & Museum,
Colorado Springs, CO

2010   Sweet, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, CO

2009   Terry Maker, Postmodern, Denver, CO

2008   The Garden of Nineveh, MCA Denver, Project Gallery, Denver, CO

2008   Slice, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2007   Revival, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO

2005   Underpinnings, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2004   Extractions, Cornell DeWitt Gallery, New York, NY

2003   Extraction, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2001   Terry Maker: New Work, Fort Collins MCA, Fort Collins, CO

2001   New Work (Paintings), Cornell DeWitt Gallery, New York, NY

1999   New Work, Cornell DeWitt Gallery, New York, NY

1998   Body Language, commissioned installation for the Arvada Center for
the Arts and Humanities (in conjunction with an installation by Vito Acconci), Arvada, CO

1997   Nature/Nurture, Gallery Van Go, SITE Santa Fe Parking Lot, Santa Fe, NM

1991   Terry Maker, McConnell Gallery, Denver, CO

1985   Terry Maker – New Work, Gallery 234, University of Wyoming,
Laramie, WY

1983   M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, Sibell-Wolle Gallery, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO

SELECTED ARTICLES / REVIEWS

Spencer Fordin, “Terry Maker uses alchemy – And a few old shoes – to forge works with soul”, Santa Fe New Mexican – Pasatiempo, March 29, 2024

Kerrie Lee Brown, “Art Professor turned Artist”, Denvver Life Magazine, September 1, 2022

Deborah Ross, “Work in Progress with Terry Maker.” Southwest Contemporary, December 2021

Ray Rinaldi, “Have you ever seen a 10-foot-wide ball of 500 cowboy hats?” The Denver Post, February 2, 2020

Ray Rinaldi, “Whimsy and Wonder.” The Denver Post, February 2, 2020

Michael Paglia, “Colorado Creatives: Terry Maker.” Westword, February 7, 2018

Ray Rinaldi, “Questioning the Powers of Medicine’s Little Helpers.” The Denver Post, December 16, 2016

Wayne Alan Brenner, “Terry Maker’s Holy Fool is a Divine Manifestation of Art.” Austin Chronicle, April 24, 2015

Steve Rabey, “Of Mind and Matter The Art of Terry Maker.” Journal of Art, Faith, Mystery 75, Jan. 2013

T.D. Mobley-Martinez, “Maker’s Mark is Creativity.” The Gazette, February 2012, p. 3

Kyle MacMillan, “Six Artists Look at Trash & See Art.” The Denver Post, August 2011, p. 6E

Kyle MacMillan, The Denver Post, “Artists Featured at Biennial,” August 2010, p. 14F

Michael Paglia, “Terry Maker’s garden grows at MCA Denver.” Westword, December 4, 2008, p. 40

Mary Voelz Chandler, “The Art of Change.” Rocky Mountain News, November 2008, p. 4

Kyle MacMillan, “Three Women, Three Galleries, Three Contrasting Bodies of Work.” The Denver Post, December 2007, p.12F

Mary Voelz Chandler, “Objects of Material Attraction.” Rocky Mountain News, November 2007, p. 22