Visitors to the Seattle Art Museum can now enjoy an inspiring exhibit in an airy gallery that showcases the fascinating juxtaposition of how two artists chose to use space. Through June 1, 2025, “Following Space: Thaddeus Mosley & Alexander Calder,” shows the stark contrasts – and sometimes surprising, harmonious complements — of the former talent’s repurposing of woods and logs, and the latter’s groundbreaking creations made of metal.

In one section, a cluster of giant wooden sculptures nearly resemble oversize slingshots made from collected branches. They rise majestically below a colorful Calder mobile, delicately dangling from above like a playful school of fish. 

As part of the “Calder at SAM” multi-year initiative, generously supported by the Kim and Jon Shirley Foundation, this collection reveals yet another thoughtful pairing in the midst of works by the radical inventor of the mobile. In this instance, five works by Calder (American 1898-1976) have been coupled with wood sculptures by Pittsburgh native Thaddeus Mosley (American b. 1926), who first became interested in art via a world cultures class at the University of Pittsburgh.

Calder transformed the trajectory of sculpture when he began making mobiles — nonobjective kinetic works that broke the mold of “action frozen” abstractions — in 1931. In 1951 he said, “The idea of detached bodies floating in space, of different sizes and densities, perhaps of different colors and temperatures, and surrounded and interlarded with wisps of gaseous condition, and some at rest, while others move in peculiar manners, seems to me the ideal source of form.”

When Mosley started his practice in the 1950s and initially encountered Calder’s work, he found inspiration in the aesthetics of modern sculpture. One of his first run-ins with Calder’s genius happened during a visit to Carnegie International — an impressive global survey the venue organizes every few years — followed by exposure to a Calder sculpture seen on the roof of a collector’s modern home in a nearby Pittsburgh suburb.

The study of African carvings, especially those by Dogon, Senufo, Bamum and Mossi makers, further influenced Mosley’s composite organic forms, said to create impressions of instability and precariousness. “I have a philosophy of weight and space,” he shares, “and that means that everything should rise from the bottom to the top to get the feeling of levitation.”

This exhibition showcases seventeen sculptures by Mosley, made between 2001 and 2024, that emphasize weight and balance, rising from the ground in upward motion and visibly contrasting with Calder’s aerial mobiles. The five works shown here by Calder, made between 1936 and 1956, were chosen in consultation with Mosley and seem to slice through space and conjure energetic forces that reach beyond human perception. Those who helped orchestrate this enticing exhibition acknowledge how these two artists — in very different ways — have created a heightened awareness of forms in space as well as the anticipation of change.

The exhibition celebrates another endearing connection between the two talents — a love for jazz. Visitors can enjoy the genre beloved by both men by scanning a QR code shown on the gallery wall or played in the space daily from 11 a.m. through noon. The compilation features songs selected by Mosley and the Calder Foundation, based on findings in his record collection.