Tom Friedman: if I ran the circus — Tom Friedman

Entrance is pleased to present if I ran the circus, the first outdoor solo exhibition by American conceptual artist Tom Friedman, featuring new and previously unseen work, primarily focused on Friedman’s large-scale sculpture practice, including a number of his acclaimed works produced from crushed aluminum foil maquettes. The exhibition also features a multi-channel video projection on view in the sculpture garden gallery.

Friedman's use of quotidian materials traces back to the earliest stages of his career; since the late 1980s, he has transformed everyday objects into works which defy classification. On view in if I ran the circus are the works sign for road to utopia, 2026, and come and get it, 2026, which both make use of the most commonplace materials—road signs and cookware—alienated from their original function and reactivated in unexpected manners. Cooking pots are turned anthropomorphic and guiding signs twist and turn into each other becoming a labyrinth of color—no longer didactical and now leading to nowhere. Similarly, the sculpture Peeing Figure (fountain), 2012, is produced in stainless steel from an aluminum foil maquette, and functions as an exceedingly modern take on a Renaissance-era fountain using the casting process Friedman has become well known for. On view in the gallery, the wall mural work it’s always the beginning, 2026, is produced simply from a paint-filled glass Christmas tree ornament thrown against the wall, however through Friedman’s clever and obsessive material exploration, it begins to look like an infinite void in space or the dramatic death of a star in a supernova event; splattered paint is the end and beginning of everything, much like the seemingly simple Pong video game represents something much larger and less subject to control—the beginning of the digital age.

Friedman’s playful approach to artmaking is clearly exemplified by his sculptural work. Tightrope Walker (clown), 2025, quietly towers above the show performing a circus balancing act. Below, the flying saucer sculpture in the act of an alien abduction, UFO, 2012–2026, illuminates the space with its surrealist glow. In the work Sid, 2007–2026, Friedman reconstructs an earlier work of his own, adapting it into his version of the Reclining Buddha. if I ran the circus invites the viewer to imagine a new world where anything is possible. People are created from cookware, styrofoam, and steel, aliens have made contact in Red Hook, and Friedman’s studio detritus is now an asteroid belt floating in the solar system. Life, death, creation, and destruction exist all at once in the circus of Friedman’s creation. If the artist were omnipotent, what would society look like?

if I ran the circus runs concurrently with there’s no such thing as art, an exhibition by Friedman at Entrance’s Lower East Side location, featuring new paintings and sculptures on the galleries ground and lower levels. there’s no such thing as art is on view September 10 – October 10, 2026. Two newly printed books, there’s no such thing as culture and Saving Tom Friedman (with text by Stefan Haus), are available through Entrance on the occasion of Friedman’s exhibitions.

Tom Friedman (b. 1965, Saint Louis, MO) is a conceptual artist known for his meticulously fabricated work, including sculpture, painting, drawing, video, and installation. Friedman investigates the concepts of perception, logic, and plausibility with a strong attention to detail. Since the early 1990s, Friedman has utilized an array of sophisticated processes to achieve a seemingly mass-produced appearance. His highly conceptual work engages both maximalist and minimalist aesthetics, as well as recalling those of Pop Art. As Friedman explains, “Art, for me, is a context to slow the viewer’s experience from their everyday life in order to think about things they haven’t thought about, or to think in a new way.” Throughout his career, Friedman has developed an important body of outdoor and public sculptures. Many of these are cast from maquettes rendered out of aluminum roasting pans, further cementing the artist’s alchemic ability to transform the everyday.