The drawer, photographer, conceptual-, object- and installation artist Tom Friedman was born in St. Louis/Missouri in 1965. Up until 1988 he studied at Washington University in his hometown. After he had become acquainted with graphic arts and various methods of illustration, he studied sculpting at the University of Illinois in Chicago between 1988 and 1990.
Soon after he had completed his studies he began to teach, amongst others, at the Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington (1991), the Wesleyan University in Middletown (1993-1995) and at the renowned Yale University in New Haven (1997). Just three years after he had finished university Tom Friedman was awarded the "Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award" and the "Academy Award in Art" from the New York Academy of Arts and Letters.
Tom Friedman made a name for himself as artist as of the 1990s. Next to photographs and hand drawings, Tom Friedman also made installations and small sculptures. Tom Friedman creates delicate sculptures that emanate an air of transience from industrial products and industrial materials in a highly skilful artisan manner. In the late 1990s Tom Friedman's sculptures and objects increasingly became larger, the question of dimensions occupies a key role in the work's conception. Abstract and figurative works by Tom Friedman must be seen in context of Conceptual Art, particularly for their intellectual approach. However, the oeuvre of Tom Friedman also shows witty notions – for instance the self portrait on an aspirin pill (1993/94).
Works by Tom Friedman can be observed in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles or the New York Museum of Modern Art. The artist lives and works in Northampton/Massachusetts.