🌀 Abstract, Conceptual, or Symbolic Wire Artists
These artists use wire to explore ideas, abstract forms, or symbolic meaning, often emphasizing gesture, motion, and spatial relationships.
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Ruth Asawa
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Video Credit: Ruth Asawa: Objects & Apparitions | Christie's YouTube
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Ruth Asawa, 1926-2013, was a Japanese American artist known for her delicate and intricate wire sculptures. She used looped wire to create abstract forms that hang in space like floating drawings. Inspired by nature, craft, and her own cultural background, Asawa’s work explores transparency, rhythm, and the beauty of handwork. Her sculptures often feel both light and structured, showing how wire can create volume and motion. Visit her website → ruthasawa.com
An artist is not special. An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special. |
Image Credit: Images from Ruth Asawa website. See her works on paper.
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Flamingo, stands in Chicago's Federal Plaza
Photo by Ricky Esquivel |
Alexander CalderAlexander Calder, 1898-1976, was an American artist famous for creating mobiles—sculptures that move with air—and expressive wire figures. In his early work, he used wire to “draw” people, animals, and scenes in space. Calder helped change how people think about sculpture by adding movement and playfulness. His wire pieces show how a simple line can suggest form, energy, and personality. Learn more → calder.org
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Kue KingKue King, b. 1982, is a Filipino American artist who blends wire with natural materials like feathers and fiber to create flowing, abstract sculptures. His work explores balance, harmony, and the rhythms found in nature. Using wire like a drawing tool, King builds forms that look like wind, wings, or waves. His sculptures often hang in space, inviting viewers to move around them and feel their quiet energy. Website → kueking.com
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Aurora
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🔶 Expressive Figurative Wire Artists
These artists use wire to represent the human figure or animals, often in ways that feel gestural, emotional, or narrative.
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Tom hill
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Tom Hill, b. 1972, is a British artist who builds animal sculptures using recycled steel wire. His work captures motion, gesture, and personality—each sculpture looks like it might spring to life. Hill treats wire like a drawing tool, using it to create energetic, expressive forms. His animals often reflect the textures and movements of creatures in the wild. Website → tomhillsculpture.co.uk
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Texas Long Horn Skull
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Tomohiro Inaba
Night Stranger
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No. 3
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No. 8
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Tomohiro Inaba, b. 1988, is a Japanese artist who combines realistic sculpture with chaotic, sketch-like wire. He often begins with a solid human or animal form that seems to unravel into swirling wire. His work explores transformation, memory, and the way things can dissolve or evolve over time. Inaba’s sculptures feel like a mix of structure and energy. More on his work → tomohiroinaba.com
Untitled
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Untitled
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Abdul Rahman KatananiAbdul Rahman Katanani, b. 1983, is a Palestinian artist born in the Sabra refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. He creates sculptures using materials like barbed wire and corrugated metal, often sourced from refugee camps. His work reflects themes of displacement, resilience, and the daily life of refugees. Katanani's art has been exhibited internationally, highlighting the struggles and hopes of displaced communities. Website → abdulrahmankatanani.com
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Barbara Licha
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Barbara Licha, b. 1953, is a Polish-born Australian artist who makes wire sculptures of human figures inside architectural forms, like cages or boxes. Her work explores emotion, isolation, and human relationships. By drawing with wire in three dimensions, she creates figures that feel delicate, restless, and psychological. Licha’s sculptures invite viewers to think about personal space, memory, and identity. Website → lichabarbara.com
Kingdom
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Tenants
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Swirl
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Break
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David Oliveira
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David Oliveira, b. 1980, is a Portuguese artist who sculpts with wire to create the illusion of loose, floating line drawings. His work looks like it was sketched in the air, using wire to form people and animals in mid-motion. Oliveira’s sculptures challenge the viewer’s sense of space and depth, blurring the line between drawing and sculpture. Website → David Oliveira, Saatchi Art
Heart Sculpture, Metal on Other
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Pietá, Metal on Other
Half Naked Sculpture, Metal on Other
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Pietá, Metal on Other
Hand Sculpture, Metal on Other
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Gavin WorthGavin Worth, b.1981, is an American artist who creates wire sculptures that look like drawings in the air. He bends steel wire into expressive portraits and figures, using line to capture gesture, movement, and emotion. His work often plays with light and shadow, changing throughout the day. Worth’s sculptures are minimal but powerful, showing how simple materials can suggest complex human expression. Website → gavinworth.com
Thirst, steel sculpture, France
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Hands Clasped, steel sculpture, International School of Geneva, Campus des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland
Video Credit: Steel Sculpture by Gavin Worth | Gavin Worth YouTube
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🌐 Installation & Environmental Wire Artists
Artists in this group work on large scale or in situ, creating wire-based environments or immersive pieces that transform space.
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Cédric Le Borgne
La Fleur, Marseille / France 2019
Les Voyageurses, Namsan Park / Seoul, 2008
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Was That a Dream?, Festival LUMIERE, Berkeley Square / London, 2018
Cédric Le Borgne, b. 1972, is a French artist who creates large, human-like figures out of wire mesh. He installs these sculptures in public places—floating above streets, in trees, or on rooftops—so they seem like ghosts or dreams in the landscape. His work plays with light, transparency, and the surprise of seeing a quiet figure in a busy space. Le Borgne’s sculptures ask viewers to slow down and notice their surroundings. More on Le Borgne → cedricleborgne.org
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Seung Mo Park
Park Soo Young, 2012, aluminum wire, fiberglass and lifecasting
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Yu Hyeon Jeong, 2015, bronze wire and lifecasting
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Seung Mo Park, b. 1969, is a South Korean artist who works with fine wire mesh to create large portraits and sculptures. Some of his most famous pieces are layered metal screens that look like photographs from a distance, but up close are made from thousands of tiny cuts. He also creates wrapped wire sculptures that show people and objects in amazing detail. Park’s work explores illusion, memory, and the boundary between image and object. More on Park → seungmopark.com, Instagram
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