Commonplace objects and quotidian subject matter are realized through extraordinary efforts. Concrete blocks, cheap beer cans and worn out tools are the foundation of a working class visual language. Traditional sculpture-making techniques are spliced with art historical motifs into their everyday nature, and in turn, these objects challenge notions of beauty and perform an inversion of contemporary class structures.
Elliott Katz (b.1983) grew up on a vegetable and ornamental plant farm in rural Vermont. He and his siblings formed the backbone of the hired help, and by the time he was six, Elliott was slogging buckets of carrots and potatoes from the fields to the farm stand. This personal history informed early sculptures in which craft was used not only as a method of production but also as a metaphor to connect past and present lives; he draws connections between working on a farm and working in a studio as both require prolonged investments of time and a particular resourcefulness.