AJ Fosik is an American artist who creates intricate, vividly colored three-dimensional pieces that reference folk art, taxidermy, and cultural rituals. Using hundreds of pieces of wood and found materials, he creates figurative and intricately designed three-dimensional works. His animal subjects and creatures are built using a complex assemblage of hand cut and varnished wood, painted in bright hues and layered into lattice patterns to create furry or feathered texture. Sharp teeth, claws and eyes emerge when the creatures are complete - some are constructed as freestanding sculptures while others are wall-mounted to a frame, referencing taxidermy practices. Ideas of empathy and synthesis are a common duality in the work, whereby the anthropomorphized figures communicate the basic human condition. Totems and fetishes, as well as the “random, chaotic and arbitrary nature of existence,” fascinate Fosik; though less overt, the animals he creates represent a plethora of icons from various theologies, giving them the subversiveness of a cast of fictional, anti-religious gods. The artist delights in the endless interpretations the works have inspired in his viewers.