Tom Joyce Sculpture to be installed at the New Mexico Museum of Art

February 3rd, 2020

(Santa Fe, New Mexico) - The New Mexico Museum of Art is pleased to announce the installation of  Berg XV, 2013/2014 by internationally acclaimed sculptor Tom Joyce, on Thursday, February 6, 2020. 

Tom Joyce trained as a blacksmith and feels an acute sense of responsibility for the role blacksmiths continue to play in our world. "Though most people would be surprised that blacksmiths are still indispensable to our lives, moving metal hot remains the most efficient means with which to shape components used in manufacturing and other wide-ranging industrial purposes," said Joyce. 

This 16,800-pound sculpture is part of a continuing body of artwork started in 2005 at the largest employee-owned industrial forging facility in the United States. The sculptures are formed at white-hot temperatures from the remnants and byproducts of large-scale industrial forgings. After the company’s commissioned forging is complete, the artist retrieves any scrap cut off of it for use their work - as “offspring”, these industrial remnants offer poignant relevance essential to the ultimate meaning hidden within the material that is incorporated.

Berg XV is forged from a massive section of a high-carbon iron ingot, referring literally to the tip remaining of a much larger piece of iron that is now at work, performing a task somewhere in the world. 

“It is thrilling to be able to share Tom Joyce’s magnificent sculpture with the public," said Merry Scully, Curator of Contemporary Art. "The placement of Berg XV, adjacent to the historic Plaza will mean that visitors from across the world will be able to see this incredible sculpture by one on New Mexico’s preeminent contemporary artists. We are thankful to the Tia Collection, Laura Finley Smith, and Tom Joyce  for their generosity  in working with the Museum of Art to make this loan possible.”  

Berg XV  is on loan from the TIA Collection and will on display at the New Mexico Museum of Art for several years.

About the New Mexico Museum of Art

The New Mexico Museum of Art is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents. Programs and exhibits are supported by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and its generous donors.

Founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico, the New Mexico Museum of Art has been presenting innovative arts programming in downtown Santa Fe for more than a century.  At its founding, the museum collected and exhibited artworks by noted artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide array of exhibitions and a significant collection featuring work from the world’s leading artists. Today, as at its founding, the Museum of Art strives to bring the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico. Museum exhibitions and programs are supported by donors to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation Exhibitions Development Fund and the Fund for Museum Education.

107 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico, just off the downtown Plaza in Santa Fe, NM 87501. 24 Hr. Recorded Message: (505) 476-5072; Front desk: (505) 476-5063 Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Events, news releases, and images about activities at New Mexico Museum of Art and other in divisions of the Department of Cultural Affairs can be accessed at media.newmexicoculture.org.