John Chamberlain (1927 - 2011) was an American artist who harnessed the innovative spirit of the postwar era into a relentlessly inventive practice spanning six decades. His innovative car-part sculptures brought him recognition for the first time in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Chamberlain’s compositions of twisted, crushed, and forged metal effused the energy of Abstract Expressionism and bridged the gap between Process Art and Minimalism. His pioneering approach established him as one of the first American artists to integrate color as an inherent component of abstract sculpture. After serving three years in the United States Navy during World War II, Chamberlain studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Black Mountain College. His life and career took him across the United States, including New York City, Long Island, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Connecticut, and Sarasota, before settling on Shelter Island; each location influenced his material choices and artistic sensibility, often dictated by the availability of materials or the limitations of physical space. Chamberlain described his use of automobile materials, which marked a significant period in his career, as sculptural self-portraits.

Chamberlain’s work has been celebrated in numerous solo exhibitions, including two major retrospectives at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (2012 and 1971), and other significant shows at the Dan Flavin Art Institute, Dia Center for the Arts in Bridgehampton (2007), Chinati Foundation in Marfa (2005), Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1996), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (1986). His sculptures are also part of permanent collections at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa and Dia in upstate New York, and he received numerous awards, including an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies, Detroit (2010), the Distinction in Sculpture Honor from the Sculpture Center, New York (1999), the Gold Medal from The National Arts Club Award, New York (1997), the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Center, Washington D.C. (1993), and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1993).