TOM MORIN

Tom Morin began making sculpture at an early age. He had his first one man exhibition at the Margaret Brown Gallery in Boston in 1954. He had just turned 20 and was a junior at the Massachusetts College of Art. The pieces were reliefs with found objects embedded in plaster with true fresco. The gallery also represented David Smith and Alexander Calder. Collectors who purchased works included Stanley Marcus and Nathanial Saltonstall. Upon graduation Tom entered the graduate program at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills Michigan where he completed his thesis in one year and was asked by President Zolton Sepheshy to return and teach the sculpture minors. During this period he had a one man show at Gallery Four in Detroit. He was featured in shows at the Fitchburg Museum of Art, “Ways and Means” in Houston and “Young Sculptors” at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art.

His next teaching assignment was to develop and head the sculpture program at Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan, Connecticut. It is here that he met and became friends with David Smith, William Zorach and Ruben Nakian. During this period he exhibited in numerous galleries and museums including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (where he had been a security guard in the summer of 1953). His first one man exhibition in New York was at the Jill Kornblee Gallery in 1958 and, 1960.Collectors included the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

In 1960 Tom Received a Fulbright scholarship to study art foundry casting in Florence, Italy. Before he left the states he was offered a position teaching sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design when he returned which he accepted. Four years later when again in residence in Italy a cast iron sculpture titled “The Rub” was selected to be in the 1964 Whitney Annual exhibition in New York.

Upon his return to the states in 1961 Tom assumed his teaching responsibilities at RISD where for nine of the next 18 years he would become Head of the Department of Sculpture, Ceramics, Glass and Metalsmithing. Dale Chihouly was his graduate student. During this time he exhibited widely at museums such as the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts and the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Connecticut. Tom had two one man exhibitions at the Kanegis Gallery in Boston in 1963 and 1965.

Tom was responsible for designing and building a state of the art foundry at RISD; procuring the third largest collection of rare wood in the country as a donation to the furniture major at the college. He was also elected the first faculty member of the Board of Trustees.

As Tom became more involved in the governance of the college serving as the chairman of the faculty meetings, he looked to a more significant involvement in higher education. When he became chairman of the Department of Art and Design at the University of 

Akron in 1979 he was exposed to the issues and challenges of leadership in colleges of art in the country. Tom served as a National Association of Schools of Art and Design accreditation evaluator of degree programs at some 19 colleges and universities. Among them were Pratt Institute, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Syracuse University and Massachusetts College of Art (where he was a student 1952–1956). His professional career and studio work continued with exhibitions throughout the Midwest and the East coast.

Tom’s sculpture changed dramatically when he realized he was limiting his ideas and content to the influence of metal casting as a medium. His new sculpture featured highly polished and symmetrical images using a variety of materials that better conveyed his ideas. He incorporated glass, extruded aluminum, plastic and fiberglass which gave the works a different but vital impact.

A later series and a drastic change from these works was the use of materials that had karma or a previous life: natural patina on metal, used or worn cloth, etc. The series’ compositions were influenced by the proportions of Japanese scrolls. These works were titled “Icons of Erotic Pageantry and Celebration”. These works were exhibited sparingly.

In 1983, Tom was appointed Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. At that time his discovery of an unorthodox sculpture material became the medium of choice for the next 26 years. The potential of used sanding belts and discs with their remarkable colors from the resin of exotic woods imbedded in the abrasive was realized in several series of works. Tom now gets the belts from National Geographic, Norton abrasives, 3-M, custom wood companies and furniture makers. Living in and influenced by the New Mexico landscape he works include the New Mexico Mesa series, New Mexico Sky Window series and the Mystical New Mexico series. Exhibits of this unique high relief sculpture have included Seoul, South Korea and Palm Springs, California. His works are represented in collections all over the world. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Art and Who’s Who in Higher Education.

Tom Morin lives in an old mining village in New Mexico

Education
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
Bachelor of Science in Education

Selected Private and Corporate Collections               Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, VA
Cranbrook Academy Museum of Art,
 .....Bloomfield hills, MI
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
Providence Athenaeum, RI
New York University, Oneonta, NY
Brown University, Providence, RI
Mr. and Mrs. Lee Berk, SF, NM
Mr. Donald McLaughlin and Mrs. Sharon Ettinger
 .....Mc Laughlin
Mr. John M. McCuster, SF, NM
Mr. Stanley Marcus, Dallas, TX
Mr. and Mrs. Hudson Walker, CT
Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Mr. and Mrs. Albert List, Bryan, CT
Mr. Nathaniel Saltonstall, Boston, MA
Mr. and Mrs. William Gillian, London, England
Mr. and Mr. Hugo Noferini, Florence, Italy
Mr. Mark and Mrs. Eva Siegrist, Switzerland
Mr. John and Beth Neidel, Santa Fe, NM
Ms Pat Rea, Van, WA
Mrs. Cheryl Ward, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mr. Ian Lang, New York, NY
Mr. James Cassidy, Columbia, MO
Mr. Claude Esmein, Balma, France
Holigraphics Inc. Providence, RI
Yankee Inc., New York, NY
Interlake Corporation, Chicago, IL
American Tube and Control (Amtrol), Warwick, RI

Listed in Who’s Who in American Art and
Who's Who in Higher Education

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