This series of welded steel sculpture are called, Workbench Artifacts 2007. Each object used in these sculptural compositions is selected for its reference to a particular industrial activity. The welded beads, grinding marks, scratches, fragmented narratives and faded industrial colors are preserved on the surfaces of each sculpture, suggesting the human component of the industrial age.

"Katz works in thick plates of cut steel appointed with modified found objects. The great thickness of the plates, the cut edges, the weld that joins them, their surfaces scarred by use and by nature emphasize the obdurance and aggressive beauty of the material. Its sense of physical weight, its reference to industry and other historical purpose, its ability to injure and yet its vulnerability to oxidation make it a perfect vehicle with which to speak of the Holocaust. . ."
Philip Isaacson, Maine Sunday Telegram July 21,2002

These sculptures are meant to evoke questions and challenge perceptions of the familiar world. Ultimately, it is my intent to reveal and present the provocative implications of an underlying logic. As the German artist, Joseph Beuys stated ". .. there should be no logical reason why the use of the artist's materials should be restricted in any way. Objects are to be seen as stimulants for the transformation of the idea of the sculpture. This should provoke thoughts about what sculpture can be and how the concepts can be extended."

[Sidepiece: Relentless Technological Acrobatics. . .]

Robert Katz was born in 1950 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He received his undergraduate degree in studio art at New York University in 1972 and a Masters of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Montana in 1975. Since 1989, Robert has made annual trips to Poland where he has explored the sites of the Jewish ghettos and concentration camps. He has hiked through the rugged Carpathian Mountains to understand the life of his ancestors in the shtetls of Galicia, and has resurrected memory and fragments of their lives. He learned about their fate at the hands of the Nazis and his recent sculptures reflect his understanding of these events. In reviewing Katz's art about the Holocaust, art critic Philip lsaacson wrote that ". . .An obstacle to moments of vision is the persistence of memory. It tends to block vision. We have our private memories and we inherit others from many sources. Most art proceeds from memory - aspect of knowledge. But when memory abdicates in favor of private vision, edge results. I can accept [Katz's sculptures] as shrines to an agony that decent people must confront throughout eternity. You can light a candle before any of them."

Small Altars has been exhibited at the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, Maine (2002), Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland, Maine (2002) and at the Jewish Community Center of Rhode Island in Providence, RI (2004). He has also completed two public Holocaust memorials: the Slivka Holocaust Memorial dedicated in Portland, Maine (2003) and Dwelling of Remembrance at the Scarsdale Synagogue in New York, dedicated in 1989. In addition, he has constructed multi-media installations on this theme that include Fragments of Dispersion at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, Connecticut (1995), Journey Home, a video installation at the University of Maryland (2001) and Rabbit Room at the University of Maine at Augusta (2000). In 2007, Katz completed a multi-media installation titled Were the House Still Standing for the Michael Klahr Holocaust Center at the University of Maine at Augusta. More about the installation can be found at MaineCoastNow.com

His sculptures and drawings have been exhibited in numerous one-person and group shows at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut; Hundred Acres Gallery on West Broadway in New York City; the Art Academy of Cincinnati; Bowdoin College of Art Museum, Brunswick, Maine and the Missoula Museum of the Arts in Montana.

Robert has served as a visiting artist and lecturer at many institutions including the Montana and Missouri Arts Councils; Medicine Hat College, Alberta, Canada; Minneapolis College of Art and Design; the University of Maryland; Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland; and at the Seeds of Peace International Camp. He is a recipient of the Payson Foundation Fellowship, the Libra & Trustee Professorship and other awards.

Robert Katz has taught drawing, design and sculpture at Oberlin College and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He is currently a Professor of Art at the University of Maine at Augusta.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the Holocaust Human Rights Center of Maine and often speaks about Holocaust interpretation through the visual arts at conferences, synagogues and universities.