Thomas Cornell

Biography

Thomas “Tom” Cornell was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and received his MFA in sculpture from the University of Notre Dame and his BFA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He currently lives and works in the Michiana region of Indiana.

Cornell’s work flows between practices as maker and curator. His curatorial practice includes the recent symposium Enmeshed: Our Changing Relationship with Space and Time in a World of Digital Interdependence. His work has been featured in multiple publications including Yahoo News and has been on the cover of several institutional publications.

Thomas’s sculptural practice involves themes of memory, loss, nostalgia, and notions of authenticity. His most recent solo show Alone Time engaged themes of object-oriented ontology, phenomenology, and objectification/agency in hoarder relationships. As an object maker Cornell’s sculpture combines processes such as steelwork, welding, forge work, sewing, casting (of glass, bronze, aluminum, and non-traditional materials), 3D modeling and printing, laser cutting, ceramic sculpture, electroforming, working with found objects, mold making, woodworking, and painting.

As teaching scholar at the University of Notre Dame, Cornell is responsible for a course of instruction within the undergraduate student body, managing the foundry, wood shop, metal shop, laser and 3D maker space, and the wet studio.