Andy Moerlein at Boston Sculptors

Storyteller's Doubt

By: Boston Sculptors - Feb 27, 2026

 

 

 

 

Boston Sculptors Gallery presents A Storyteller’s Doubt, a selection of Andy Moerlein’s newest work on view April 2 – May 3, 2026. Offering larger than life woodcarvings as well as paintings, photographic collage and an immersive installation, the show also features collaborations with two esteemed colleagues.

 Moerlein states: “Doubt is my navigator. Doubt drives me into the wall and then threads me deep into caverns devoid of light where what we perceive meets the expansiveness of what we can only imagine.”

Known for his poetic approach to media in service of an idea, the recent passing of his father and sale of the family’s Alaskan homestead inform the exhibition, centering on an exploration of the wall- mounted hunting trophy. Recontextualizing his Alaskan hunting family’s living room decor as a self-portrait in the form of a bird, Moerlein comes to terms with loss, death and transformation.

 Ceramic birds roost on branches evoking conversation between the artist and his father, while carved logs loom large, mingling with mysterious stone-like sculptures. His “object poems” are masterfully crafted from wood, feathers, paint and other evocative media. A Storyteller’s Doubt continues the artist’s observation of archetypical wild nature. A graceful triptych carved in wood is inspired by the Japanese Zen concept of enso, or circle, a spirit world without beginning or end, and references Moerlein’s research into the Asian tradition of the scholar’s rock.

 Moerlein also presents two collaborative works. One with lifelong colleague, Michigan artist Mike Mosher. They spent six months in a dialogue of challenges, presenting influential art to each other and then individually making a work of art in response. He also collaborates with young Boston artist Jo Nanajian, a dear friend earning rave reviews and notable attention. Their installation is the result of an experimental duet in the studio. Working side by side, each artist contributed media and experiences. Responding to a prompt, their installation is as much about process as it is about the video, images and work they created.

 Andy Moerlein: A Storyteller’s Doubt runs concurrently with Eileen de Rosas: Walk This Way.

As an artist I collect ideas and impressions and retell them in a physical way. Art is my seeking to distill and understand my life experiences. What I create is not a linear logic like science, but rather a passionate exhuming of sensation and revisioning. As a sculptor I am a materialist, I love making. The mediums I use have characteristic and the images I create from them have character. Those paths can be divergent, or harmonious. For example, the ceramic birds I create and use in my story telling sculptures are ceramic for ease. The wood “rox” I carve are often reliant on their medium of wood for their shape, flow, and expressivity.

 There are few rules, yet my art is linked. Birds face outward, hinting at my fascination with Asian decorative screens. In these static scenes, the still bird and it’s shadow capture a setting that seem poised for only a moment. They often hover over a stick that rests on a stone that could be a landscape. My wood stones are often just logs reconfigured to evoke the sturdy power of cliffs and ravines. The limbs form a ridge that suggest a skyline. The birds often stand in as characters in a story; the person as a bird; wood as a landscape; the landscape represented as stone -  and the story has a platform.

 Doubt and questions are the basis for my practice. With the passing of my father this year the emphasis of this finite treasure of the living moment was reemphasized. I simply cannot escape the quandary that a life of challenging my work may be the purpose. There may be no masterpiece resolution, just the daily slog of peeling back an impression to it’s purest form. This show is a romp with heart open and arms flung out. It is a vulnerable situation.

 I am no Zen practitioner, but I adore ideas. This principle gave me heart to carry on despite the oppression of my insecurities. 'Great doubt, great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.'--Boshan.

Boston Sculptors