Paul Barringer

I'm Paul Barringer, a Phoenix sculptor working in carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum, often paired with stone, wood and reclaimed material. I call the work ZenDustrial: organic form emerging from raw industrial material, where precision meets soul. I've been welding for about twenty five years. I came up in bronze foundries, first at Arizona Bronze and later at Richard MacDonald Studio, where I ran the pour and helped cast work for artists like Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Tom Otterness and Tom Sachs. That's where I learned what metal can hold. My own work keeps returning to a circle or vessel holding something in tension: a dodecahedral vessel suspending a line of stones beneath a rebar canopy, a piano plate reborn as a bell stand, a walking tree with roots that move. I've been building quietly for years. Now I'm bringing it out into the light.