Lee Hoag

Lee Hoag is an American artist based in Rochester, NY. He has lived in Western New York most of his life. Hoag identifies as queer.

Hoag’s current work challenges the assumptions and bounds of assemblage sculpture. Crafted from collected household and industrial objects, jewelry-making construction techniques are applied on a grand scale. His mixed-media sculptures possess alluring textural relationships. They explore themes of transformation and altered meaning.

Hoag studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with renowned artists, Judith Linhares, Tom Holland, Franklin Williams, Hassel Smith, Sam Tchakalian, Robert Hudson, William Geis and Carlos Vila -- where experimentation was encouraged. He received a BFA in Painting in 1979. Through the years, Surrealism, Assemblage, Funk, Post-minimalist sculpture and Installation have influenced his work and development as an artist.

In the 1980s, Hoag trained as an American Sign Language interpreter at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (RIT/NTID). And in 1992 received a Master’s in Art Education from Rochester Institute of Technology. He worked as an ASL interpreter for 30 years, while exhibiting his work throughout New York State, nationally   and internationally.

Language and meaning have come to play a key role in his artwork.
Highlights of Hoag’s more than three-decade career have included: receiving a commission to build a large-scale outdoor sculpture for "Artist Garden Project," in conjunction with the Rochester Lilac Festival in 1996; and in 2000, attending a week[1]long residency at Freiluftgalerie Stötteritz (an outdoor sculpture park) to create a large sculpture for inclusion in their invitational exhibition, "Kopf Los 2000," in Leipzig, Germany.

In 2017, Hoag was invited to exhibit a 25-year survey of his works across several media at the RIT/NTID Dyer Arts Center. His sculpture, "What A Blast" (2016) is on permanent display there at NTID. That same year Hoag and his work were featured on Rochester's PBS station, WXXI's Arts InFocus program. 

Hoag has exhibited in Buffalo by way of the Hallwalls Member Show since the late[1]1990s. In recent years he exhibited at Buffalo Arts Studio, Play/Ground 2019 in Medina, and the Carnegie Art Center in North Tonawanda. His award winning sculptures have been included in Made In NY at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, as well as featured there in a solo exhibition in 2023. His massive wall-sculpture, Hang Tough was exhibited in the 69th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery,