every which way

source: katzceramics

Through my installations I explore the notion of existence within a fabricated reality of constructed space. Humans have historically defined spaces of occupancy through imposed interventions into the natural landscape of constructed site, inventing environments for colonization and expansion that mediate our relationship with the natural world. While most species evolve by adapting to local ecosystems and environments, humans uniquely alter the environment to fit our needs. As a result, we exist within realities of our own construction, adapting to a world of our own creation.

My installations negotiate these ideas abstractly through intersections of organic bodily forms and architectonic constructions. The push and pull between rectilinear structures of fired ceramic and a fluid, bodily expression of unfired clay serves as a metaphorical representation of human existence within the rectilinear world that increasingly defines our physical environment. Cage-like structures spread throughout the exhibition space provide sites of occupancy to house biomorphic clay form, sculpted to appear contorted and trapped, yet conveying a sense of agency and free will. Order emerges as unfired clay forms expand through space as webs of organization that link disparate sites into one large interconnected network of systems. While composing these webs I take reference from road maps, patterns of urban development, architectural form, mathematical principal and biological phenomena.

As installations progress and the construction of webs come to fruition, the material nature of the raw clay reveals the temporal character of the overall system. Through the drying process of the clay, cracks develop in the webs exposing the fragile nature of the connections within the vast interconnected network presented, thus raising questions of permanence.

My hope is to create installations that explore human tendencies of colonization, expansion, and emergence of order, while allowing the material nature of clay to expose questions of permanence and sustainability.
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source: cfileonlineorg

We recently saw David Katz’s work scattered around this year’s NCECA conference including at UMass Dartmouth, where he completed a Post-Baccalaureate program in 2009, in the exhibition The Uncommon Object. Katz graduated from the University of Indiana-Bloomington with an MFA in 2012 where he also taught as an Associate Instructor of Ceramics. He is currently the Ceramic Technician and Visiting Artist at Bennington College in Vermont.

Katz creates site-specific installations that stretch biomorphic dry clay across rooms and galleries. The clay is unfired and cracks as it dries giving a sense of extreme fragility and leaves you wondering, “How is that still suspended there?” The dried slime is secured to metal-looking anchors placed around the space. The goo grabs them firmly, but gently, like a hand on your back, loving and reassuring, but dominant, a reminder that you can be pushed to the ground. The goo is a killer substance in hibernation until naively awoken by the human race who will swiftly be suffocated, one-by-one. There is an adrenaline rush in being near Katz’s installations, so close to death. Not your typical death, something worse, a complete elimination from history, a lack of existence.

“Through my installations I explore the notion of existence within a fabricated reality of constructed space…” “While most species evolve by adapting to local ecosystems and environments, humans uniquely alter the environment to fit our needs. As a result, we exist within realities of our own construction, adapting to a world of our own creation.”

There is an irony in Katz’s biomorphic installations, where they are commenting on human created systems by mimicking the very process of creating them. Like humans, Katz finds a space, imposes his sculpture into it and then visualizes time passing through the clay drying and cracking. They create an experience of looking at a huge amount of time (past, and yet-to-come) in a single instant – fossils from the future.

Katz’s site-specific installation at Arch Contemporary titled Contingent Crib was a departure from his typical biomorphic goo work, taking a different approach to addressing similar ideas of constructed systems. Here, Katz took an existing system, a corn crib, the oldest farm structure on the Sakonnet Peninsula in Rhode Island, and made a sculptural addition, an unfired clay “inflated pedestal” around its foundation. Rather than designing the entire system, like in his previous work, Katz took an actual system that had run its course, and used it as a vehicle to explore history, importance, and location. Observing the commonalities between this piece and his biomorphic work reveals what is at the heart of Katz’s practice.

“My hope is to create installations that explore human tendencies of colonization, expansion, and emergence of order, while allowing the material nature of clay to expose questions of permanence and sustainability.”

In Contingent Crib the irony of Katz’s system-mimicking biomorphic sculpture is absent, working with literal time and history as the framework for the piece, not a representation of it. Both are interesting approaches to arrive at similar questions, but Contingent Crib contained a vitality that is sometimes lost in his biomorphic work. There, risk was present, along with imperfection, vagueness, subtly, tension, realism, and mystery, all things that gave the unsuspecting structure a profound presence and modern day relevance.

What do you think of Katz’s biomorphic sculptures and his Contingent Crib piece at NCECA? Let us know in the comments.
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source: cascadepass

David Katz’s art training began under the tutelage of Duane Hanson, a pop artist focusing on social statements through sculpture. Salvador LaRosa, a well known Florida based artist exploring modern day expressionism, instilled in Katz an intense personal vision and influences from German Expressionism. David Katz graduated from the University of South Florida with a masters in art. There he was influenced by Charles Lyman, an experimental filmmaker and Stan Vanderbeck, a pioneer in animation techniques. His work was his salvation, keeping him sane or insane depending upon your perspective.

Various art movements are evident in David Katz’s work like German Expressionism, Fauvism, and Pop Art. Artists that influenced him are Paul Klee, Andy Warhol, Jean Dubuffet, Stan Vanderbeck, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Frank Stella, Karel Appel, Robert Rauschenberg, and Kathe Kollwitz. Thinkers like Freud, Jung, Kafka, and Sartre also had a great impression.

David Katz’s works have been selected for numerous film festivals from Brazil (Anima Mundi) to Chicago (Chicago International Animation Festival) and New York (New York International Film Festival) to Los Angeles (AIVF DV Expo). Cartoon Sea, a recent work, was selected for worldwide viewing by Film Aid, in association with the United Nations and has been used as an interstitial on PBS.

David Katz’s Cartoon Consciousness, Embryo, and Mega One have been acquired by the Mississippi Museum of Art, the USF Contemporary Art Museum, and the Bass Museum of Art for their permanent collection. David Katz has recently been asked to be part of the Canal Street Projection Project. The event is part of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce arts program.

David Katz has enjoyed being a children’s book illustrator for the past fourteen years, illustrating a total of fourteen books. His illustrations or “book art” have been acquired by the Mazza Museum in Ohio, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey, the de Grummond Collection in Mississippi, and the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center in Connecticut. The Mazza Museum exhibited Katz’ video installation Cartoon Sea in June 2005. Gail Aaron of the Zimmerli Art Museum wrote that David Katz’ “works will make a fine addition to our collection, not only because the original illustration and print are very beautiful, but also because it provides an outstanding example of the use of digital technology to produce exciting new illustrations for children’s books.” David Katz is the president of Cascade Pass, he has also acted as the director for the Future Girls: Adventures in Marine Biology television program and as art director on the company’s line of CD ROMS.

Katz also recently spoke at the DV Expo in Los Angeles about using the medium of digital video in art. The panel included Michael Massucci and Kate Johnson from EZTV, Kimberly Reed from DV Magazine, and French video artist Sandy Amareau.

David Katz is currently working with jazz composer Robert Lockart on putting his newest piece entitled “Jazzy Art” to music. The work was inspired by jazz legends like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Thelonius Monk. The animation explores the importance of music and the roots of jazz. David Katz continues to work in Marina del Rey, California.