EXHIBITIONS

FRAMEWORK

Lancaster Museum of Art and Wood in Lancaster, California

September 16 to December 17, 2023

ARTIST STATEMENT (re: Branching Out)

After decades the question, “what can I do with the wood,” has been overtaken by the question, “what can I do for the wood?” Branching Out, a wall installation constructed entirely from wood scavenged, recycled, and milled from fallen urban trees, is a response to that question. An antique dresser, found discarded on the streets, serves as the lower base of the tree trunk, on top of which a tree emerges upward 32 feet tall and 33 feet wide. The dresser stands in for history and civilization, and my transformation from cabinetmaker to artist.

In his book, “A Forest Journey,” John Perlin states, “Beginning 385 million years ago, trees made the proliferation of life on earth possible...with (their) emergence our carbon dioxide blanketed planet was transformed into a hospitable planet for... other life to develop and flourish. It goes without saying that we are not repaying the favor.”

My wood collecting began with the slabbing of a large ash and continued on the wood strewn Santa Monica and Malibu beaches after the 1997/98 El Niño winter storms ravaged California. There would be a long gestation period waiting for inspiration to hit. My collection would move from shop to shop as I waited. It took 20 years to find my voice, enter the collection and invent the piece-by-piece collage approach I use to make work. “Branching Out” begins my shift from using wood to create objects, to returning objects back into trees.

Placing The Windgate Artist Residency Program Exhibition

Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

August 4 - October 15, 2023

Holzgreen’s Cuz Democracy’s Still Got Legs: Philadelphia is in the Permanent Collection of Museum for Art in Wood.

In late 2020, shortly after Joe Biden won a convincing presidential victory, Holzgreen used his signature fabrication style to create a kind of cabinet on long, spindly legs. Fun and funky, says the artist, “I think it kind of looked like a spider or octopus or something.” In a moment when many of us were taking deep and sustained sighs of relief, he titled it, “Cuz Democracy Still Got Legs.” As another election cycle looms, Holzgreen feels the ongoing relevance of his first ungainly tribute to democracy’s resilience. In the shop at 1800 North American in Philadelphia—arguably the seat of American democracy—Holzgreen has built another box perched atop wobbly legs. Built from bits of wood that are various in their textures, patinas, species, and wear, this “furniturish” sculpture breaks new ground for the artist. Over several years he’s been developing this construction methodology, building what Leslie King Hammond refers to as “objects of sublime beauty and extraordinary craftsmanship,” functional works from the material commonly discarded (Leslie King Hammond, Baltimore Craft Week Favorites).

At the WARP Residency, Holzgreen is claiming permission to try something new. Instead of using surfacing tools to remove those patinas, he’s preserving the wood as found, a choice that’s particularly poignant for the LA-based artist in residence in Philadelphia. The debris and scrap found on building sites around this city might easily reflect the ongoing work of democracy over the last nearly 250 years. Perhaps there will be Cuz Democracy Still Got Legs, July 4th, 2024, and another the year after. “So that’s why it’s all the pieces that are weathered and tiny and trying to hold together and definitely wobbly.” The legs may be uneven; they may need customized plinths to steady the base, or splines and scrap twine or even wire, but we hope Holzgreen keeps making these until democracy stands on more stable ground.