Born in the Southwest, my family moved to the D.C. area when I was four, where I first remember seeing artwork in museums.

We then moved to Rochester, NY when I was eight. By the age of 14, I knew that I wanted to be an artist, and began painting.

The family moved back west to Tucson while I was still in high school. A couple years later, I went to the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI).

There I studied with notable artists of the Funk Art movement, which had developed out of the Beat culture in the Bay Area. Collected objects found their way into my work, which increasingly became sculptural, and sometimes performance.

For personal reasons I declined acceptance into the MFA program, and six months after graduation moved back east again to Rochester, where I settled.

After a several year break from artwork to start a family and train at NTID as a sign language interpreter, I returned to drawing and painting, then eventually sculpture and installation art.

In my current practice, my assemblage sculptures are a precarious balance of contradictions with a sense of sturdiness and fragility coexisting simultaneously.

I don’t sketch ideas, then go off searching for objects to create them. Rather, I collect objects that catch my eye, attracting my attention as material I can use to create something compelling.

Guided by intuition, I engage with the objects through playful experimentation in the studio. The materials are brought together into a composite form that stirs my curiosity and fires my imagination, leading me to a kind of ‘aha’ moment.

Then I figure out and engineer the internal connecting hardware necessary to hold together the parts as one form.

Through my work I seek to elicit the viewer’s own imagination. There is a certain magic that happens and transfers between the artist and the artwork, between the artwork and the viewer.

The three sculptures selected for Small Works 2021 reflect my interest in playing with scale, which can range from monumental works to ones that are an intimate size, able to be hand-held.

As with my larger assemblage works, the titles are taken from expressions and idioms that may have a subtle connection to the work, using a play on words.

Bottoms Up, comes from the fact that a couple of the components used in the sculpture are with their intended “bottoms” turned upward.

Pound for Pound, has all the presence and punch of much larger works.

Down Played, has a downward push to the form.

See more of my work: https://www.LeeHoag.com
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/lee.hoag
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeHoagArt

Small Works 2021 includes 215 works of art by 136 artists from 28 state and runs through Thursday, December 23, 2021.