Work Statement

My mixed-media sculptures draw on the limitless capacity of ordinary objects for the poetic. They challenge the assumptions and bounds of assemblage. They possess alluring textural relationships, with themes of transformation and altered meaning.

In my studio practice, I follow a Surrealist principle to access and source the subconscious. As an explorer of the unknown, I’m open to create what I can’t yet imagine.

My process is object-driven, from collection through composition and construction. Inspiration comes from the objects and their material qualities, how they play off one another and evolve as I interact with them. There’s a point when these diverse objects coalesce into something novel that hooks me — a vague notion emerges, ideas take shape.

This new thing starts to take on life and its own character in how I relate to it and how it speaks, revealing itself to me, stirring imagination. Development of each work is informed by this alchemical transformation and perceptual shift.

This arrangement of objects becomes a puzzle to solve — how to fit and be held together as one thing. Key to pulling off this metamorphosis is an unseen mechanical structure.

The works evoke presence and elicit curiosity. They engage the viewer’s own power to invent and construct narratives for what they see, and form connections with.




— Lee Hoag