Friedman often plays with the logic of scale in his work; previous art objects range from monumental, to miniscule, to entirely absent or conceptual.

Detritus is a playful, meticulous reimagining of the ordinary, marking a striking evolution in Friedman’s ever-inventive practice. Read on to learn more about the artist’s expansive and longstanding career, from his early adventures in material to his monumental public sculptures.

“By representing what seems like the unrepresentable, Friedman questions what a painting is for, and as with most things he does, disorders and questions the conventional notions of value and priority.”

— Andrew Paul Woolbright, The Brooklyn Rail, September 2025

“Friedman’s work renders everyday detritus—toothpaste, spaghetti, eraser shavings, plastic drinking straws—extraordinary, even unrecognizable. His art evinces painstaking construction and fastidious precision. Friedman’s treatment, beyond transforming common objects into art objects, yields profound uncanniness.”

— Natasha Degen, Frieze, June 2008

In her review of the survey at the New Museum, critic Roberta Smith lauded Friedman’s deft ability to synthesize postwar styles with a “Fluxus feel for the overlooked and the uncanny and a Pop love of things found around the house.”² Smith would later write in 2014: “The artist Tom Friedman tends to blow our minds and then move on, rarely repeating himself.”³

WORKS IN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Friedman’s work is included in the permanent collections of major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art in Sweden, and the Lisser Art Museum (LAM) in the Netherlands, among others.

OUTDOOR PUBLIC SCULPTURE | 2010s to the Present

Throughout his career, Friedman has developed an important body of outdoor and public sculptures. These immersive works embody the whimsical yet intentional nature of his practice on a monumental scale.

In his celebrated large-scale sculpture Looking Up, an elongated, silver figure looks to the sky, inviting viewers to stand at its base and do the same. Looking Up was installed at the entrance of Rockefeller Center’s Channel Gardens in January 2021, and has been exhibited at Park Avenue, New York; South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois; and the Contemporary Austin, Texas, among others.

IN THE STUDIO WITH TOM FRIEDMAN | 2025

In the following video, Friedman invites viewers inside his studio as he prepares for Detritus. Watch to see Friedman reflect on his love for garbage, the role of an artist, and the process of creating this new body of work.

From his early, meticulously crafted explorations of material to his large-scale, immersive installations, Tom Friedman’s practice playfully probes the boundaries of perception, value, and meaning. Now, putting paint to canvas for the first time, the artist recontextualizes the detritus around us, uncovering a sense of renewal amidst the mundane.

Visit Detritus to experience Tom Friedman’s big ideas unfold through meticulous details.

Inquire About Available Works by Tom Friedman

GET IN TOUCH

¹ John Waters and Tom Friedman, “Serious Playboys: Tom Friedman in Conversation With John Waters,” Parkett, 2002. Link

² Roberta Smith, “Art Review; Magic Transforms Ordinary Materials Into Extraordinary Works,” The New York Times, October 26, 2001. Link

³ Roberta Smith, “Tom Friedman: ‘Paint and Styrofoam,’” The New York Times, July 31, 2014. Link