Brian Mergenthaler

Brian Mergenthaler is a self -taught artist living and working in Durham, North Carolina. He primarily uses found and salvaged, discarded and broken mechanical antiques. He became fascinated with antique machinery as a kid, fixing equipment for his father’s junk business in rural Illinois.  This is where he gained respect for early American machinery.  Twenty years later, after abandoning a career as a chef, he has combined his restless creative energy with a lifelong passion for forgotten mechanical antiques. Brian creates whimsical pieces, trying to entrap the personality of the raw materials as well as energy from people he has known, past and present.