Martin Puryear was born in Washington, D.C., where he graduated from Catholic University of America in 1963. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm and returned to the U.S. to receive his MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 1971. Puryear is known for his organic forms that are both utterly unique and celebrate and respect a wide variety of materials, techniques, and traditions. In 2016, the Art Institute of Chicago organized a major exhibition titled Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama in 2011 and represented the United States in the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 with the exhibition Liberty/Libertà.
“I still work with my hands, in the belief that touch, or the way the material is manipulated, can influence the work, and that the physical making process itself can generate ideas, as well as bring them to fruition.”