John Ross

John Ross is a sculptor who works across disciplines and mediums — from his chainsaw figures and bronzes, to cast resin objects and massive plaster pieces. His work combines a surreal sense of scale, an uncanny eye for subverting expectations, and unconventional use of common materials.

John Ross’s path to becoming an artist was—and is—circuitous, detour-filled, and packed with wild entrepreneurial excursions. His art practice may have begun in the late 1970s when he cofounded two of Indiana’s best-known music venues, The Vogue and The Bluebird. It may have begun when he entered art school after cofounding a company specializing in the transportation of jet fuel . It may have begun when he first picked up a chainsaw and carved a log into a figure. It may have begun when he first moved into his Stutz Building studio two decades ago. However it began, he’s here, covered in sawdust, finding humanity in gnarled wood, baking 12-foot plaster birthday cakes for everyone, casting his brooms in resin and bronze , building robots and writing code.