Ernst Gruler grew up building and taking things apart, then refined and expanded those talents to become a furniture artist, welder, and painter. Repurposed steel is the media for a significant body of his current work. The cast-offs of cars, trucks, and farm machinery—plow blades, mesh steel, leaf springs, strut rods—are melded to create new, practical and sculptural objects. His Sound Sculptures, bells made from former pressure canisters, resonate with tones of noble beauty that belie their mundane industrial origins. His new series of sculpture based on repurposed industrial springs incorporate slag glass (a byproduct of commercial glass kilns) and the movement of the springs, inspired by wind or touch.
Ernst Gruler’s furniture, sculpture, and paintings exhibit technical mastery, creative design, and artistic excellence. Gruler experiences art as a form of active meditation. When asked how long it takes to make something, he says, “the sum total of my moments in life so far.” Ernst Gruler earned his BFA and MA from Northern Michigan University.
He lives in Lamy, New Mexico, and co-owns GVG Contemporary with his wife, painter Blair Vaughn-Gruler.
