Wood Pushers: Artists Take on Chess

November 6, 2026 – March 14, 2027

Beyond the rules and stratagem of chess lies its sculptural appeal. Sixty-four squares, thirty-two pieces, two opposing colors: a deceptively simple mise-en-scène for this multidimensional test of cunning and patience. Historically, wood has been a favored material for the royalty, knights, bishops, and pawns of chess, as well as the matrix across which they traverse. Almost as universally available as the game itself, wood’s versatility and capacity for intricate hand-carving have inspired generations of makers to interpret these familiar figures, whether riffing on standardized forms or upending traditions altogether.

Wood Pushers: Artists Take on Chess brings together nine artists whose interpretations range widely in scale, form, and approach. All sets are playable, adhering to the conventions of the game while challenging expectations of its physical form. At once sculpture and instrument, each set invites us to consider the interplay of artistic imagination and strategic possibility, bringing to life what Man Ray called “a sculpture of many parts.”

Artists: Oswaldo Chinchilla Villacorta, Wharton Esherick, Rex Kalehoff, James Macdonald and Lucky Platt, Michael Mode, Anders Nienstaedt, Mark Sfirri and Amy Forsyth

Wood Pushers: Artists Take on Chess is generously supported by the Cambium Giving Society of the Museum for Art in Wood, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Bresler Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the William Penn Foundation, and Windgate Foundation.