delicate hold

July 25, 2025 – December 1, 2025

Kurt Tomerlin (he/they) draws with hammers that are meant to pound and etches with clamps that are meant to hold. They loosen their grip on hand tools that traditionally demand a firm hold, instead asking the tool itself how to make a mark. By doing so, Tomerlin challenges traditional craftsmanship, using tools in unexpected ways to explore identity and touch. He studies their archive of handyman manuals – pages paused in mid-action, caught without momentum. Against this stillness, Tomerlin sets their gestures in motion: mark-making, machine-play, and toolwork that disrupt frozen scenes and question narratives just out of reach.

Tomerlin reflects, “I yearn to be invited to a woodshop, to be called a craftsman. To be called man? The tool follows me everywhere, I keep it in my pocket like an extension of a hand. ‘The apprentice should make a habit to never lay the hammer down.’ Sometimes you have a tool and you decide not to raise it. Sometimes you decide to let it go gently, dropping its wight instead of leveraging it. Sometimes you work against yourself, your tool, your material, the world, and release yourself into exhaustion."

Kurt Tomerlin is a graduate student at the University of Iowa’s School of Art, Art History, and Design, specializing in printmaking. Their work explores themes of craftsmanship, identity, and the relationship between tools and the body.

Kurt Tomerlin, hold it tight, serigraphy on fabric, 21" x 17"