Tony Price was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1937. In 1967 he landed in El Rancho, New Mexico, having spent the 1960s traveling the US and Europe amongst concentric circles of artists, beatniks and emergent hippies. Near El Rancho in Los Alamos, he discovered Ed Grothus’ Black Hole, the famed laboratory salvage yard, and he began to create utilitarian objects such as chairs and tables and musical instruments, as well as wind chimes and gongs, out of the lab’s military-industrial “junk”.
Price was horrified by the bomb’s potential to thoroughly alter lives by its mere existence, and to end all life by its actual use. He began to create sculptures, and his most famous works are a group of deity-inspired masks created out of scrap metal, representing the faces of Spirit as seen by traditional cultures from around the world.
In 1983 filmmakers Glen Silber and Claudia Vianello completed a documentary on price titled “Atomic Artist” that aired nationally on PBS in 1986. In September 1986, Price was given a solo exhibition in the New Mexico Governor’s Gallery at the state capitol. The New Mexico Museum of Art organized a major retrospective in 2004 that traveled to the United Nations in 2005.
Price’s works of transformed nuclear detritus are celebrated and collected worldwide.
Life & Times
Essays on Tony Price by James Rutherford
Gallerist, Curator
Timeline
1937

1937
Tony Price and fraternal twin Ted, born Brooklyn, NY
1943-49
1943-49
Grade school and Junior High in Pelham Manor, New York
1952
1952
Tony's skills as an artist and musician recognized while attending the South Kent school
1956-57

1956-57
Joins Marines, paints portraits of military brass
1960
1960
Lives variously in New York, Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende
1962
1962
Member of Woodstock Artist Association
1963-67

1963-67
Travels and lives in Europe, moves to San Francisco
1967
1967
Visits El Rancho, NM
1968

1968
Moves to El Rancho, NM, discovers salvage yard at LANL
1969
1969
Shows at Liquid Wedge Gallery, New York City
1970-75

1970-75
Tony dedicates his energies and talent to Atomic Art
1975
1975
Shows work at Gallery of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM
1976
1976
Group Show, Regional Sculptors, New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
1981
1981
Outdoor pieces shown at Shidoni Gallery, Tesuque, NM
1982
1982
Shows at RoseMont Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1983
1983
Installs Atomic Wind Chimes and S.A.L.T. Talks in Battery Park, NYC
1983
1983
Exhibits and sells work at the Atomic Art Gallery in SoHo
1986
1986
Documentary film on Price, Atomic Artist, shown on PBS
1986
1986
Featured Artist, Telluride Ideas Festival, Telluride, CO
1986
1986
Exhibition at Governor's Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1988
1988
Exhibits work in MegaVision, a global cultural event, Santa Fe, NM
1989
1989
Tony and friends establish TENGAM, a sculpture garden and gallery space, Santa Fe, NM
1991

1991
Installs numerous pieces at Biosphere 2, Oracle, AZ
1991

1991
Meets the Dalai Lama
1993

1993
Price moves to Reserve, NM, and constructs a studio to reassemble his Atomic Art, and continues to work
1998

1998
Tony suffers a major stroke
2000
2000