Will Clift: Still Points, Turning World

September 19 – December 12, 2025

Opening reception with the artist: Friday, September 19, 5-7PM

Gerald Peters Contemporary is pleased to announce Still Points, Turning World, an exhibition of freestanding, wall-mounted, and suspended sculptures created by Will Clift.

Born and raised in Santa Fe, NM, this is Clift’s first exhibit since returning from a year-long fellowship in France as the recipient of the Prix Henry Clews. Every two years, the Chateau de la Napoule selects an outstanding sculptor for the award, which provides a rare year in residence on the Mediterranean Sea.

In the middle of his life and career, the experience proved pivotal. Freed from expectations, Clift was able to work in a more improvisational method, delving into broader and deeper manifestations of the tension and equilibrium that has fascinated him since childhood. While his works have long explored the boundaries of line, refinement, and formal elegance, with this exhibition he shows he has found new life, new breath in his medium, by exploring forms in balance that are not just physical, but emotional and relational.

Clift’s latest body of work explores interdependence and connection – the equilibrium achieved by a group in concert, the oscillation within order that defines a flock of birds.  Where previous explorations looked at tension and poise as physical manifestations, his newer sculptures showcase the emotional experiences of vulnerability, resilience, and mutual reliance. The resulting works, often multi-pieced, maintain Clift’s choreographed sense of motion, while introducing a deeper and more intimate dimension.

This is the most personal set of sculptures I’ve created to date. The focus of my earlier work was on individual objects standing balanced on small feet. Now, I find myself acknowledging that self-reliance is largely an illusion. I’ve become much more interested in connection, interdependence, group dynamics, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

In France, Clift explored the sea, cliffs, gardens, and towers without his customary studio and tools. Responding to these elements, he created highly site-specific works, sometimes directly in trees and ancient stone structures, often revealing hidden aspects of the locations. Since returning to Santa Fe, Will has continued these directions, but has also been engaged in a series of monumental public projects.   His new large-scale works reflect this ethos of place that creates a relationship between the locale, the public, and the art which invites them to reflect on the meaning behind the place, and the role of those who find themselves in each location.

Will Clift (b. 1978) lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. From a young age, he would assemble wooden blocks into cantilevered structures in his family’s home, pushing them larger and larger until they came crashing down. As he grew up, this evolved first into making furniture, then into sculpture. In 1998 he moved to California to attend Stanford for Bachelors and Masters degrees. He did not study art, instead creating his own programs that combined psychology, systems thinking, environmental studies, and mechanical and civil engineering.

His early sculptures were mostly small-scale forms made of hardwood, but since the early 2010s this evolved into outdoor- and site-specific sculptures that required new materials and structural systems. To meet these challenges, he mastered a range of new materials, including some adapted from the aerospace and construction industries, such as carbon fiber composite and ultra-high performance concrete.

In 2016, Stanford invited him back as Visiting Artist, during which time he developed several interdisciplinary projects with departments ranging from Dance Choreography, to Material Science, to Environmental Engineering. Later that same year, Clift won the prestigious International Visiting Artist Prize through Australia’s Sculpture by the Sea exhibition, one of the most-visited outdoor sculpture exhibitions in the world. In 2022 he was awarded the biennial Prix Henry Clews, which brought him to France for a year’s fellowship.

He has completed numerous large-scale public art projects, including for the Denver Botanic Gardens in 2016, Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2018, the City of Santa Fe in 2023, City Hall in Mesa, Arizona, in 2024, and most recently, in July 2025, he was selected for a major commission for the Santa Fe County Administrative Complex.