Chamberlain, John (1927- ) , American sculptor, known for his welded sculptures made of scraps from automobiles. In his works—which range from the miniature to the colossal—Chamberlain uses three-dimensional objects to communicate the ideals of abstract expressionism, a style previously reflected mostly in painting.

Born John Angus Chamberlain in Rochester, Indiana, Chamberlain moved to Chicago in 1931 to live with his grandmother. From 1951 to 1952 he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1955 he attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina. His early sculpture shows the strong influence of the welded works of American artist David Smith.

In 1956 Chamberlain moved to New York City, where abstract expressionism was the dominant style in painting. Influenced in particular by the paintings of Dutch-born American artist Willem de Kooning, Chamberlain began using three-dimensional media to capture the color, energy, and spontaneity of abstract expressionism. Chamberlain's freestanding sculpture Shortstop (1957, Dia Foundation, New York City) consists of automobile-body scraps, which Chamberlain welded together and then drove over with a car. By the early 1960s, he was working primarily in this medium.

Chamberlain's first show in New York City was at the Martha Jackson Gallery, in 1960, and he had his second New York City show at the influential Leo Castelli gallery, in 1962.

From 1967 to 1974 Chamberlain worked with such materials as fiberglass, foam, plexiglass, polymer resin, and even aluminum foil, which he used in his sculpture Lucy and Ricky (1973, Dia Foundation). During the late 1960s he also experimented with filmmaking, dividing his time largely between New York and New Mexico. Nevertheless, building sculptures using multicolored steel remained his favorite artistic medium. In 1971, he had a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.