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Mahler and his original design, Mobile 92
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In the studio, Mahler sands a piece of metal shaped for a new construction.
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Mahler’s innovative pieces have the same balance structure as a classic Calder mobile.
Name: Marco Mahler
What he makes: Kinetic sculptures, also known as mobiles
Fun fact: Growing up in Zurich, Switzerland, Mahler had his heart set on being a professional singer-songwriter.
How he began: Inspired by Alexander Calder’s huge mobile hanging in the atrium of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., he made one for his sister’s new baby at her request. “It turned into a hobby where I’d sit at the kitchen table with a roll of wire and make things,” he says. “I had no intention of turning it into a career.” He made more small mobiles, and they sold well on Etsy.
Commissions: In 2003, he made a mobile for a restaurant in South Carolina. “Making custom and large work presented a whole other challenge,” he says. “It took a bit of courage.” MAO Public Relations commissioned a mobile for a New York Fashion Week show in 2007. Robert A. M. Stern, New York architect and dean of architecture at Yale, picked one of his pieces to hang in the architects’ room at the prestigious Kip’s Bay Designer Show House.
Competitions: Mahler won third prize in the 2015 International Kinetic Art Organization competition. “It was exciting to get that recognition,” he says, “and then things started happening.” He was asked to submit a proposal for an atrium in a Cincinnati hospital and won the job.
Partnership: Mahler met mathematician Henry Segerman through Twitter, and together they created small, precise mobiles with a 3D printer. “I don’t think anyone else has made them that way. It was fun and exciting to do.”
Big screen: Last year the director of the film “The Upside,” with Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman, commissioned a custom mobile to hang over Cranston’s character’s bed.
Why he loves the process: “It’s a nice balance of working with my hands and a more intellectual side of the design process,” he says.
Future: Mahler says he’ll continue to make custom work for clients, and he also hopes to make some of his own ideas happen. “It’s Calder and not much else. I’d like to make a contribution to the art form.”
