Arno Goetz makes art about the urban relationship to nature and how the tension between two competing land usages holds clues about a society’s value systems. He creates sculptures, rogue gardens, fine design objects, and prints which engage with the cyclical nature of objects and raw materials. Wood becomes cabinet door, and cabinet door becomes raw material again. With materials like paper, bronze, plaster, wax, dirt, and steel, Goetz folds, polishes, tears; stitches, molds, and cleans. Goetz engages with systems of material alchemy and creates physical allegories of everyday objects by mimicking them in non-native materials, asking questions about authorship and reproduction while expanding our definitions of printmaking. In the Annex Garden Project, a land-based installation on the Cranbrook Academy of Art campus, he worked with the institution to develop a temporary landscaping policy for a 15’ x 80’ space outside his studio. Informed by the no-tilling process in agricultural production, Goetz encouraged a policy of non-control and minimal human intervention, which allowed the grassy monoculture to develop into a vibrant, complicated ecosystem. The needs of the institution were often at odds with the needs of the garden, and Goetz made prints, photographs, and sculptures about the relationship between artist, institution, and the pursuit of non-control.
Arno Goetz (b. Dallas, 1998) began by making photographs. The work he made as a high school student exhibited internationally. Goetz attended Washington University in St. Louis (WashU), where he eagerly expanded his art-making practice and studied drawing, painting, and sculpture. In 2018, Goetz lived in Italy and began exploring the printing press while studying at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence. In 2020, Goetz graduated from WashU and received his BFA in Fine Art and a minor in Art History/Archeology. Goetz returned to Dallas to apprentice under Barvo, a Texas-based bronze sculptor. Goetz worked with antique foundry techniques, restored figurative bronzes, and developed a passion for all things metal. After working with Barvo and learning how to operate a large studio, Goetz returned to school and continued his education. For two years, Goetz studied at the famed Cranbrook Academy of Art and thrived in its radical, experimental structure. Described as the cradle of Mid-Century Modern Design, Cranbrook challenged Goetz to consider materiality, complexity, and contradiction. Goetz fell in love with the historic Eliel Saarinen Cranbrook architecture which also influenced artist/designers Harry Bertoia, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Jack Lenor Larson, Florence Knoll, Niels Diffrient, and Fumihiko Maki. Goetz earned his MFA in 2023 and returned to Dallas to teach conceptual drawing and 3D sculpture classes at the University of North Texas. Goetz also worked as an art conservator with specialties in ceramic/porcelain and crystal. By meticulously repairing Chinese tureens, Japanese porcelain vases, and American crystal heirlooms, Goetz learned about antique methods of production and contributed to the health and vibrancy of North Texas’s rich cultural heritage. Goetz continues to work in Dallas and creates needlepoint pillows, unique monopressings, and public-facing sculptures.
agoetz@cranbrook.edu ; @arno.art