STATEMENT:

My work investigates the relationships between the self in society, the self in the environment and the expanding world of consumption. Day to day objects are transformed in shape or material to become symbols for greater themes; in Valvoline Portraits, for example, the shape of a quart-sized container of motor oil was modified to enshrine bas-relief portraits of political figures and scenes from idealized American culture, and through this subtle transformation comes a total shift in context. No longer is the object just a consumer-ready resource, but rather it becomes the embodiment of global strife using the latitude of history and one's daily relationship with oil.

R. Elliott Katz currently resides in Burlington, Vermont, and is the Studio Manager and Working Resident of the Seven Below Arts Initiative (www.sevenbelowarts.com).

EXHIBITIONS:

Human = Landscape, Firehouse Gallery for the Visual Arts, 2009
An exhibition based on the theme of Vermont’s future landscape in an energy constrained world.

Cultivate, MASS MoCA at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens, 2008
Site-specific sculpture on the theme of cultivation and preservation of the environment at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens

Sculpture Now, 2007
Site-specific public presented on Main Street, Stockbridge, MA

Aviary, 2007
Roy Lichenstein Center for the Arts exhibit of drawings and paintings inspired by birds

Artscape, 2007
Public art installed in the urban landscape; sponsored by the City of Pittsfield, MA

Chesterwood Museum Contempory Sculpture , 2006
Site-specific sculpture at the estate of Daniel Chester French