Simon Saleh

Simon Saleh taking a break at the...

Simon Saleh is a Lebanese American sculptor, fabricator, and public artist based in San Antonio, Texas. Raised in East Texas, he grew up within a four-generation small business and a Lebanese family culture shaped by resourcefulness, persistence, hospitality, and pride in making something with one’s own hands. From an early age, he learned that difficult things could be figured out, built, repaired, negotiated, or reinvented, and that there was rarely only one correct way to get something done.

That upbringing taught Saleh to trust his own judgment, work outside conventional systems, and create opportunities rather than wait for permission. The independence that helped his family build and sustain a small business now informs the way he approaches art, fabrication, and public commissions. He is drawn to ambitious projects that require him to invent his own processes, solve unfamiliar problems, and move fluidly between imagination and practical construction.

As a child, Saleh spent much of his time exploring creeks, collecting rocks and insects, building forts, riding dirt bikes, and transforming whatever he found into tools, structures, and imagined worlds. Those early experiences continue to shape an artistic practice rooted in curiosity, experimentation, and play.

Saleh earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2012. In 2015, he co-founded Wanderlust Ironworks with his wife and creative partner, Autumn Saleh. Through the studio, ... view more »

Simon Saleh is a Lebanese American sculptor, fabricator, and public artist based in San Antonio, Texas. Raised in East Texas, he grew up within a four-generation small business and a Lebanese family culture shaped by resourcefulness, persistence, hospitality, and pride in making something with one’s own hands. From an early age, he learned that difficult things could be figured out, built, repaired, negotiated, or reinvented, and that there was rarely only one correct way to get something done.

That upbringing taught Saleh to trust his own judgment, work outside conventional systems, and create opportunities rather than wait for permission. The independence that helped his family build and sustain a small business now informs the way he approaches art, fabrication, and public commissions. He is drawn to ambitious projects that require him to invent his own processes, solve unfamiliar problems, and move fluidly between imagination and practical construction.

As a child, Saleh spent much of his time exploring creeks, collecting rocks and insects, building forts, riding dirt bikes, and transforming whatever he found into tools, structures, and imagined worlds. Those early experiences continue to shape an artistic practice rooted in curiosity, experimentation, and play.

Saleh earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2012. In 2015, he co-founded Wanderlust Ironworks with his wife and creative partner, Autumn Saleh. Through the studio, he has developed a multidisciplinary practice encompassing large-scale public sculpture, architectural metalwork, custom fabrication, installation, restoration, and conservation. His primary materials include steel, stainless steel, and bronze.

His work combines the practical knowledge of a fabricator with the exploratory instincts of an artist. Familiar objects, fragments of memory, and recognizable forms are enlarged, reconfigured, or placed into unexpected relationships. Because these objects are shared across generations, cultures, and backgrounds, they offer viewers an accessible point of entry into the work.

Saleh approaches public space as a kind of playground: a place where imagination can interrupt routine and where people can rediscover curiosity, humor, and wonder. His sculptures are designed not only as objects to be observed, but as approachable meeting places capable of becoming part of a community’s daily life and collective memory.

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Artist Statement of Work

Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):

I approach each public art site as a kind of ground for play, a shared place where curiosity, memory, humor, and imagination can return to public life. I believe most adults carry an inner child that has been quieted by responsibility, stress, and the serious machinery of everyday life. In the studio, I try to listen to that part of myself, the part that wants to experiment, combine unlikely things, make the world behave differently, and ask, "What if?" Through public sculpture, I want to invite that same sense of wonder back into the community.

My work often begins with familiar objects, materials, and memories. I am drawn to things many people have encountered in some form, including musical instruments, cowbells, vintage car details, school objects, tools, industrial parts, and objects tied to family, work, celebration, and daily life. I choose these references because recognition can become a shared doorway. When an ordinary object is enlarged, altered, or placed in an unexpected situation, viewers are invited to rediscover it together. The work becomes less about my private memory alone and more about a common experience. It becomes an invitation for people of different ages and backgrounds to bring their own associations into the encounter.

Play is central to my process, but I do not think of play as careless. I think of it as one of the most serious forms of invention. I often begin with a loose visual idea, then physically test materials, found objects, and forms against one another until the composition starts to feel alive. This process is connected to my background as a drummer. I compose sculpture through rhythm, adjustment, trial and error, and instinct. When a piece finally locks into place, it feels ready to go on stage.

Metal is my primary language. In college, I had two educations happening at once: studio art classes and paid work in a fabrication shop, where I built stairs, fences, and structural metalwork alongside experienced welders. That immersion taught me that metal is often the hidden skeleton of public art, and that mastering it would allow me to carry an idea from imagination to finished object without separating concept from fabrication. The curve of a form, the way a weld is resolved, the weight of a structure, and the final surface are not secondary to the idea. They are part of the idea.

A recurring element in my work is what I call a moment of discovery. This may be movement, sound, light, scent, a hidden interior, a peephole, an unexpected material, or a visual joke that rewards closer attention. I want beauty and craftsmanship to invite the viewer in, then discovery to keep them there.

I build my sculptures to withstand weather, touch, maintenance, and time because durability is one way public art shows respect for the people who inherit it. In the end, I make public sculpture to humanize ordinary spaces, awaken curiosity, and create durable objects that feel elegant, powerful, approachable, and alive. Skill is the method. Beauty is the invitation. Wonder is the reason.