Lost in Jersey
So close to NYC, New Jersey is a melting pot of creativity, ambition, and culture. Everyone has a Jersey story and on Lost in Jersey, we’re here to share them with you.
Lost in Jersey
From Childhood Creations to Museum Masterpieces: Tom Nussbaum
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What does it take to dedicate sixty years to a life in art? Artist Tom Nussbaum has been answering that question since childhood—first by tinkering in his dad’s Minnesota workshop, later by filling New York lofts with his whimsical, deeply human creations, and now through monumental public works that thousands encounter every day.
With his first major retrospective opening at the Montclair Art Museum this fall, Tom sits down with us to reflect on the arc of his career—from playful childhood inventions to intricate welded steel works crafted in his East Orange studio at Manufacturer’s Village. Along the way, we talk about the duality in his art: the bold, planned installations that brighten public spaces and the improvisational studio explorations that dig into memory, psychology, and narrative.
We also explore how New Jersey became Tom’s creative home, why community matters as much as craft, and how his lifelong curiosity continues to fuel new work. Whether you’re an artist, an art lover, or just curious about the creative journey, this episode offers a rare look inside a six-decade practice still evolving with joy and purpose.
Montclair Art Museum Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There's More!
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Tom Nussbaum's Retrospective at Montclair Museum
Speaker 1Hi Rachel , hey Danette , we just got off a wonderful interview with the artist Tom Nussbaum . He has a retrospective coming up at the Montclair Art Museum on September 13th is the opening and everybody has to go . He is a sculptor and he is a maker of things .
Speaker 2He has a few pieces that if you see them you'll know that you've seen them before , and it has to be seen in person . All these very whimsical , fun pieces . I think that you would love to take your kids to it too , because I think they would enjoy seeing all the colorful pieces that he makes .
Speaker 1And we talk about all of this in the interview about his decades of work that he's going to show at the museum Just get a little peek behind the scenes of an artist who grew up in a creative family and just it was always a part of his life , making art .
Speaker 2Yeah , and he didn't go to art school , which I love because you know they didn't go to art school , you don't ?
Speaker 1always have to go to school for the thing you end up doing in your life people , that's right Tune in to this great interview , but also please subscribe .
Speaker 2Please subscribe to our channel .
Speaker 1We are growing , share it with people Check out our YouTube channel especially for this one . Check out your YouTube channel because you can see his almost finished work that will be at the museum behind him as he's talking , and he also gives us a little tour of his studio , which is so cool . That's right , enjoy .
Speaker 2Tom , thank you so much for joining us on Lost in Jersey . It's nice to meet you .
Speaker 3Well , thanks for having me . I'm happy to be here .
Speaker 2We were excited to get an email from Ira of the Montclair Art Museum about your new exhibit that's coming up . I believe it's going to be installed in September .
Speaker 3Yeah , actually it opens to the public on the 13th oh great .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 3I've delivered a few hundred pieces already to the museum and I have three more left to deliver .
Speaker 1Wow , when you walk through the space and discuss the exhibit with your curator , do you have feelings of where things should go ?
Speaker 3Yeah , we've been working on this show for go . Yeah , it's been . We've been working on this show for about . Well , we started talking about it two years ago and I would say the first year and a half was finding the work , deciding which work was going to be included , finding if it was available , and then , once that was decided , then the curator has a small architectural model of the galleries . What they did was they made little miniature versions of every single piece to scale that fit in the model and then they hung the show in the model . So every piece kind of had a home in the galleries in miniature and that's really the guide that they used for installing the show . Then the exhibition designer comes in and helps design and kind of finalize the positions of the pieces and how they're going to go . So it's an involved process and a very thoughtful process .
Speaker 2No idea there was so much involved . Yeah , we want to get into your background , but first we want to note that Rachel and I were . We were on a trip down to the Indie Film Festival this last week and we were on , I believe it was , the Garden State Parkway .
Speaker 3Yeah , it was the Garden State .
Speaker 2And we're like , oh my God , there's Tom's work right there , tom , yeah , yeah , that's so cool .
Speaker 3Thank you . Yeah , that's a big . It's a mural that I did for the City of East Orange , and that mural is painted on what is essentially an empty building , a kind of an abandoned building there , but it was sponsored by the city and organized by Linda Street , who is an art impresario here in East Orange where my studio is . She was really the person who put that together and made it happen , and it was painted by a crew of local artists . I didn't actually paint it myself . I designed it for the space , gave employment to local artists who painted it professional muralists and so it was kind of a community project that we all did together .
Speaker 2And it's based on one of your most famous pieces , the Boogie Woogie . Is that what it's a that you've done .
Speaker 3That's correct .
Speaker 2Yeah , and it's a beautiful piece , it's one of your probably well-known ones .
Speaker 3That's correct . The original sculpture wall piece is in the show at the Montclair Art Museum .
Speaker 1Great , so we could see that in person .
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm curious to know if we take you back in time , because we like to get the origin story of our guests here about where you grew up and how you evolved , got yourself to New Jersey .
Speaker 3I was born in Philadelphia but my family moved to Minneapolis , minnesota , when I was very young , and so I really grew up in Minnesota and I grew up in a family where kind of creativity was really appreciated and we all in our family made things together .
Speaker 3Often I painted little soldiers with my brother and we did lots of craft projects and doing leather tooling and bead weaving and macrame and all kinds of little things . My dad had a workshop in the basement with a workbench and lots of tools and he showed me how to use tools , and so it was just something that we all did all kind of well , me especially , but all the time it was just an activity to go down in the basement and make things . And so in the museum show there are some things that I made when I was 10 and 11 and 12 years old that somehow survived , and they are little toys and inventions that I made when I was a kid . So actually the earliest piece in the show is from 1963 , when I was 10 years old . Interestingly , 60 years later , my artwork is still very related to those things that I made when I was a child .
Speaker 1Well , even behind you , looking at the person with the crown bent over , like he's at or she is at a workshop and is making something , is that a train ? Yeah , oh , that's so cool .
Speaker 3There is a train in there , yeah , there are vehicles driving through and there's a landscape and there's a tow truck and boats and a guy fishing . You know , in Minnesota Fishing is kind of one of the main activities , both in the summer and the winter , so as a kid I would go fishing a lot . So there are autobiographical elements in this new work and they do run all through the work in the show .
Speaker 1It feels like , because I'm staring so intently at it behind you , the metalwork piece . But if you dropped a ball on the top , if we animated it , it would just go through all the different circles and the tubes and come out here and then go back there . I don't remember what those games are .
Speaker 3That's a great idea . Actually . I have done some animations .
Speaker 2I saw on your website you have a video animation where you've got someone rowing a boat and then , as they're rowing , they go to a big head appears on the water , which is the Listening man sculpture that you've done many different sculptures of it . I find it interesting that all of your work seems to have this kind of journey .
Speaker 3Like I said , I've been working continuously since I was a kid . Over the years my work has changed a lot and I explore different materials and ways of working and then I get hungry to try new things and try different forms . But the exhibition is a retrospective and it starts with pieces that I made in the 60s and then it goes kind of decade by decade through these different phases of my work . That is very figurative and it's very much about psychological states of mind and how figures relate to each other and how we think about consciousness and unconsciousness , how these relationships that people have with each other and with animals and their metaphors for feelings and that kind of thing and families , and so that animation falls into that category
Creating Exhibition Spaces and Public Art
Speaker 3of that work .
Speaker 3The figure starts out in life rowing a boat and comes across this obstacle and it turns out the obstacle is this large representation really of himself , and so he climbs into the ear , which represents what it feels like to be listened to , and then he's kind of transformed and he emerges as a bird and he flies off and he comes back and comes through the mouth and that is an idea of what it feels like to speak and to use your voice to express yourself and he reemerges as himself and gets back in his boat . But now that he's got on this little journey of self-discovery , instead of rowing he's sailing off into the future . So the whole thing is a metaphor for the process of self-exploration and what you learn as you get older .
Speaker 2When you were a kid and I'm sure you found that you were artistic did you go to the art school route ? Did you do it the traditional way ?
Speaker 3I have not followed a traditional path , that you know . I did not decide to go to art school and I did not get a degree in art making . I did go to school and I have been making things continuously . I think the engagement around these psychological ideas are personal issues that I've been interested in in my own growth as a person and trying to express that and I was raising my children and thinking about what it means to be a father to both my son and my daughter , thinking about how important my father was to me and my parents and how families work , trying to be a good parent and sort of express those ideas . It's just the journey of life that I think a lot of people take and I'm digging around and trying to sort it out .
Speaker 1Do you pre-plan what you're going to sit down to make or stand up to make or , like during those times when you're exploring something about yourself , do you just show up into your studio and see what happens ?
Speaker 3So there are two kind of major parts of my work and there's the work that I do in the studio , which is work that's all completely for me and part of my expression as an artist , of my personal expression , and I also do public work . And so the public work that I do is pretty carefully planned , and it has to be , because when you're doing artwork in public places you're working with a budget , you're working with a group of clients and the creative exploration is in the planning of the work and then once that's done , that work gets fabricated according to the plan . So at that point I'm just kind of making a blueprint . Often there are other fabricators building the work , and the work that I do in the studio for myself and in my practice is very improvisational . I kind of know where I'm going , but I don't know how I'm going to get there . I just am making it up as I go along .
Speaker 2But I do know that you came to New York City and worked with some artists that probably influenced you .
Speaker 3Can you give us that journey from coming to New York City to working with them and how your career progressed from that art classes and we moved to New York in 1980 . My wife at that time and myself worked for other artists and we lived in Tribeca and we both worked as assistants for more established artists and really learned from them what it means to be a professional artist and how you organize your life and your work and how you market your work . And it was through those artists who were very generous with their time and knowledge of the art world who helped me get connected to galleries and other artists in the New York City art world . They were paying us to make their artwork but very quickly I got into making my own work full-time and got gallery representation in order to sell and market my own work .
Speaker 1I think a lot of people don't realize
Creative Childhood and Artistic Origins
Speaker 1that some of these big artists or well-known artists have a team of people who are artists that help them realize the work you know really they're building or they're painting or they're constructing all under the director of the main artist .
Speaker 3Yeah , Well , it's a long tradition in the history of art . It's a long tradition to do that . And you can you look at the Renaissance artists . You know , just to pick an example , they did have teams . That I mostly work alone and I'm kind of happy that way . But of course , when I do my public work especially , I could not do those projects without a team of people who are experts in their different areas . You know , I have to have an engineer , fabricators and somebody who has a crane .
Speaker 2The public installments are incredibly impressive , so can you tell us then , how did you end up becoming a famous New Jersey artist ?
Speaker 3I don't know , am I famous yet ? I guess , if you guys , I guess I'm on your show .
Speaker 1You are , you've made it . This is the peak .
Speaker 3We lived in New York for 15 years and then we came to New Jersey when our children were young and we wanted to be in a more bucolic setting .
Speaker 3We didn't want to be in this city any longer and we came to Montclair because , well , in part because the museum is there and there's a great community of artists in Montclair also and all of the surrounding towns also , and all of the surrounding towns there's a funny story which is , you know , new York City is very much considered the center of the art world and worldwide .
Speaker 3And when we first came to New Jersey I was kind of wondering you know , I'm over here and New York is over there . And I actually went to the Thomas Edison Museum right here in West Orange and Thomas Edison , for better or worse , he had this amazing inventions factory right here and he was creating and making things and pardon the pun . But the light bulb went off and in my head I was like , well , if he could do that here , I can do whatever I want here . It was kind of a moment for me to make me realize I'm very happy here and through multiple state programs and Arts for Transit , you know , an artist cannot survive without the support of a community and New Jersey has been really wonderful for me in supporting my work and all the different aspects of it .
Speaker 2Where is your studio now ?
Speaker 3I'm here in East Orange . It's called Manufacturer's Village . It's a Victorian complex of factory buildings . Originally it was the original home of Johnson Johnson and before there was Johnson Seabury and they made medical supplies here in the late 1800s into the early 1900s . And then I came into this building about 18 years ago and brought a bunch of my friends and we've been slowly populating the building with artists .
Speaker 3Mona Brody , she and I had had a studio in the building on the on the parkway . She came here first and she called me up and she said Tom , you got to come over , you got to see this place , and so we started with a few artists here and now we have about 60 . We do have an open studio event twice a year , in October and in April , when all the artists open their doors and the public is welcome to come . Upcoming open studio is this October 18th and 19th . The address is 356 Glenwood Avenue and that's in East Orange . All the artists open their doors and I do too , and you can come and visit my so great . We usually have a food truck and we try to do a charity fundraiser and we do projects with the community and happy to be here in East Orange . The city is very gracious to our presence here .
Speaker 2Well , I'll definitely go to that , and everyone needs to go to the Montclair Art Museum to see your exhibit open up on September the 13th .
Speaker 3It runs through January 4th and that show is a comprehensive retrospective of my work .
Speaker 2Are you doing less color ?
Speaker 3Yes .
Speaker 2You're doing less color now .
Speaker 3Yeah , this piece is not . These are the colors that it's going to be . Oh , okay , so it's kind of white , so that yeah , a lot of my work is , as you know , is very colorful , but I also do monochromatic work , which means that it's one or two colors , and that's what this piece is , so I can give you a detailed shot here .
Speaker 1Oh , wow , oh , that's so amazing . There's a story on every little spoke . It's so intricate .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 2How long does it take you to do a piece like that from start to finish ?
Speaker 3I've been working on this for five months .
Speaker 2Yeah . It looks like it takes a lot of work .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 2And is it made of steel and welding ?
Speaker 3It is . Yeah , this whole thing is made of welded steel , and
Animation and Psychological Themes
Speaker 3when I start I make the patterns out of paper . So this is the pile of patterns .
Speaker 3So I do the whole composition in paper on the wall first . I do the whole composition in paper on the wall first , and then I take those patterns and I bring them over to my work area where I cut , I use the patterns , I draw them on steel , I cut them all out and I weld them in my workshop . Wow , yeah , I build sections of the artwork and so it all . It's too big to move , so it all comes down into different sections and it breaks , built a piece that she could not get out of her studio door . But you can see here these are the colors that I use when I'm painting the other work . I have a whole palette of colors that I've mixed that I go to when I'm painting work in color .
Speaker 2So you pre-mix the colors .
Speaker 3I do , yeah , and that's the way I learned to paint . And , you know , every artist has a different technique , and this is the technique that I learned , actually from that very same artist , susan Pitt , that I was just talking about .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's so cool to see your studio and how many tools and brushes and paint colors .
Speaker 3And I love it so much , a light fixture that I made .
Speaker 1Oh , you made that . I love that . Wait go back .
Speaker 2That's right , you know . I read on your bio that you had started out creating these type of light fixtures and also things sold in the museum gift shops . Is that still something that you do ?
Speaker 3I don't anymore . In the 80s into the 90s I had cottage industries making light fixtures and hat and coat racks and it was a way of helping support the growing family . You know , when the kids were young they needed someplace to hang their coats . When they came in the door I
NYC Training and Public Art Journey
Speaker 3made an iron snake with pegs on it and they were like , oh , we have a special place and now they hung their coats up and it was . You know , it was kind of effective .
Speaker 1We're all in trouble as parents now because we can't do that and it's not fun to hang up your coat .
Speaker 2Is there anything going to be in the gift shops at the museum that you have for sale ?
Speaker 1Yes , Congratulations for this upcoming exhibit . It's pretty incredible and we'll put links to it in the show notes . We'll promote it as well .
Speaker 3My work especially is sculpture , so it's three-dimensional and you share the space with the work , and so I really encourage you to see the work in person .
Speaker 2Well , thank you so much for joining us on Lost in Jersey . It's been a pleasure to get to hear your story and we're excited to see your work in person .
Speaker 3I don't think it's up yet , but as part of the show you'll be able to go to the map and see my projects that are all over the state .
Speaker 2What is that ? What is those games Like ?
Speaker 3where's Waldo , where's Waldo , where's .
Speaker 2Tom , where's Tom's work ? Well , thank you so much for sharing that . Thank you for making New Jersey more beautiful than it already is .
Speaker 3Thank you . Yeah , thank you very much . It's been a fun interview .
Speaker 1This podcast was produced by Rachel Martens and Jeanette Afsharian . You can find us on Spotify , itunes and Buzzsprout . Thanks for listening . See you next week .
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