Richard Nonas’s studio, a Wunderkammer piled high with artifacts and relics, as well as past and in-progress works, unfolds with the unexpected surprises of an archaeological dig. Hunkered down within a jungle of antique vises and drills, ladders, chains, axes, arbitrarily stacked books, pulleys, rugs, handmade kayaks, and countless constructions of wood and steel are collections of exotic masks and curiosities. The contrast between the studio and Nonas’s sparse but no less complex interventions in gallery spaces is nothing short of astonishing. Within the mysterious din of his studio, Nonas shares some intriguing insights into his unique response to space as a sense of place, discussing the stark white light of his recent exhibition, “SLANT” (Fergus McCaffrey Gallery in Chelsea, New York), which featured a single two-floor installation composed of wood and steel sculptures and one large drawing, all dating from 1973 to 2017. …see the entire article in the print version of November’s Sculpture magazine.
