Aaron Waller's sculptural assemblages offer a contemporary twist on "Junk Sculpture," a genre popularized by artists like Louise Nevelson and Deborah Butterfield who transformed found materials into art. While Nevelson used salvaged wood for her enigmatic abstractions and Butterfield crafted her early horse sculptures from scrap metal, Waller's approach is distinct.
He “traffic’s in unwanted items,” blending finds from thrift stores, flea markets with remnants from his father's mountain retreat. Unlike Nevelson and Butterfield, who often duplicated subjects, Waller introduces a new 21st-century "artspeak" through surrealist assemblage sculptures. He intentionally unsettles the viewer by using visual elements out of context, coupled with stimulating titles. This method aligns with Surrealism's original focus on social attitudes and behavior, infused with modern symbolism.
For example, his most recent work below, "Woman Looking Within, Outward," utilizes a fabric-covered, pinnable dress form designed for clothing adjustments. Instead of keeping the components tightly assembled, he breaks them apart, leaving the "body" open for the viewer to look inside.
Though Waller presents as an easy-going individual seemingly devoid of cultural or political preoccupations, his aesthetics powerfully convey ideas and thoughts relevant to this millennium. In my critical assessment, Waller's artistic practice centers on composition. He crafts three-dimensional sculptural collages using a combination of vintage and modern objects, which serve to narrate stories that the artist himself may be unwilling and perhaps unknowingly share.
This artwork is informed by Waller's contemporary life - shared professional responsibilities with his wife in their company and the joint duty of raising their young son. These positions expose modern men to the disturbing societal influence, such as the current U.S. leadership's language toward women, covered (Nov. 26, 2025) the President’s public degradation of a female New York Times’ journalist as an "Ugly, both inside and out" and "third rate reporter."
Waller's sculpture employs rich symbolism. Inside the dress form, elements like a mousetrap and a cosmetology head with bright red lips and a camera-lens "spyglass" suggest surveillance and hidden dangers. On the exterior, a beer tap positioned like an incoming missile over the right shoulder and a pressure gauge on the left hip symbolizing external, overwhelming issues, hint at conflict and stress. Despite these pressures, the form is built on a strong, steady stand adorned with colorful vintage buttons. The work ultimately comments on the elevated status and array of responsibilities of 21st-century women: navigating traps, facing threats, managing stress, competing with technology, and maintaining strength and attractiveness simultaneously.
Ultimately, the piece is not a patriarchal representation but a reconceptualization of the pressure on women to maintain attractiveness while simultaneously navigating societal traps, incoming challenges, technical difficulties, and the deeply entrenched structural causes of women's oppression. Here the materials themselves have been discarded to gain a new point, a potent voice for women in the hands of Waller.
His other recent work, "The Hunted Are Now Hunting,” shares a similar surrealist symbolism. The piece presents a striking post-apocalyptic aesthetic by fitting a deer skull and antlers with a rugged gas mask, thereby merging the symbolism of Montana's wilderness with a stark, industrial vision of the future.
The imagery portrays a world where wildlife must adapt to environmental or chemical devastation. However, the struggle for Montana hunters is less about environmental ruin and more about facing a landscape where modern-day land-barons monopolize hunting licenses. The "out-of-state" hunters pay a high price for the chance to hunt on private, billionaire-owned estates, forcing local Montana hunters into a toxic fight for hunting survival.
Waller's work boldly embraces every artistic "ISM" - from surrealism and symbolism to assemblages and junk sculpture. It is remarkable how his assemblages of found, man-made objects forges new and pertinent narratives for the present day. Out of nothing; Art.
He “traffic’s in unwanted items,” blending finds from thrift stores, flea markets with remnants from his father's mountain retreat. Unlike Nevelson and Butterfield, who often duplicated subjects, Waller introduces a new 21st-century "artspeak" through surrealist assemblage sculptures. He intentionally unsettles the viewer by using visual elements out of context, coupled with stimulating titles. This method aligns with Surrealism's original focus on social attitudes and behavior, infused with modern symbolism.
For example, his most recent work below, "Woman Looking Within, Outward," utilizes a fabric-covered, pinnable dress form designed for clothing adjustments. Instead of keeping the components tightly assembled, he breaks them apart, leaving the "body" open for the viewer to look inside.
Though Waller presents as an easy-going individual seemingly devoid of cultural or political preoccupations, his aesthetics powerfully convey ideas and thoughts relevant to this millennium. In my critical assessment, Waller's artistic practice centers on composition. He crafts three-dimensional sculptural collages using a combination of vintage and modern objects, which serve to narrate stories that the artist himself may be unwilling and perhaps unknowingly share.
This artwork is informed by Waller's contemporary life - shared professional responsibilities with his wife in their company and the joint duty of raising their young son. These positions expose modern men to the disturbing societal influence, such as the current U.S. leadership's language toward women, covered (Nov. 26, 2025) the President’s public degradation of a female New York Times’ journalist as an "Ugly, both inside and out" and "third rate reporter."
Waller's sculpture employs rich symbolism. Inside the dress form, elements like a mousetrap and a cosmetology head with bright red lips and a camera-lens "spyglass" suggest surveillance and hidden dangers. On the exterior, a beer tap positioned like an incoming missile over the right shoulder and a pressure gauge on the left hip symbolizing external, overwhelming issues, hint at conflict and stress. Despite these pressures, the form is built on a strong, steady stand adorned with colorful vintage buttons. The work ultimately comments on the elevated status and array of responsibilities of 21st-century women: navigating traps, facing threats, managing stress, competing with technology, and maintaining strength and attractiveness simultaneously.
Ultimately, the piece is not a patriarchal representation but a reconceptualization of the pressure on women to maintain attractiveness while simultaneously navigating societal traps, incoming challenges, technical difficulties, and the deeply entrenched structural causes of women's oppression. Here the materials themselves have been discarded to gain a new point, a potent voice for women in the hands of Waller.
Woman Looking Within, Outward
Sculptural Collage
July 2025
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| Interior Detail with Mouse Trap |
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| The Hunted Are Now Hunting Sculptural Collage-Wall Hanging July 2024 |
Using construction techniques, Waller transforms a deer skull, a gas mask, and a circular metal plate into a disturbing wall-hanging sculpture. The artist's meticulous craftsmanship is evident in how all connection points are hidden, creating the unsettling illusion that the deer naturally donned the gas mask. Hidden lights behind the mask's glass lens cause the deer to glare with ominous red eyes.
The imagery portrays a world where wildlife must adapt to environmental or chemical devastation. However, the struggle for Montana hunters is less about environmental ruin and more about facing a landscape where modern-day land-barons monopolize hunting licenses. The "out-of-state" hunters pay a high price for the chance to hunt on private, billionaire-owned estates, forcing local Montana hunters into a toxic fight for hunting survival.
Waller's work boldly embraces every artistic "ISM" - from surrealism and symbolism to assemblages and junk sculpture. It is remarkable how his assemblages of found, man-made objects forges new and pertinent narratives for the present day. Out of nothing; Art.
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©2026. Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art is a research collaborative, working to track artists that got lost and overlooked due to time, changing styles, race, gender and/or sexual orientation. Our frequent blogs highlight artists and art movements that need renewed attention with improved information for the researcher and art collectors. The photos and blog was created by Mr. Waller and all written materials were obtained by the Fair Use Section 107, of The Copyright Act. #AaronWaller #AaronWallerArt #Surealismcollage #surrealistcollage #Junkart #Womenemprowermentart #walleryoblonskyfineart #walleryoblonsky
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