Pavel Kraus works in Dumbo, Brooklyn, where he plans and assembles marble sculptural elements, which he produces, on a larger scale in India. Since the late 1990s, Kraus has explored the quid pro quo connected to the notions of offering and redemption. The artist began working with quarried stone in 2007. Abstract motifs of semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli, malachite, carnelian and tiger’s eye are smoothly set within a larger egg-shaped marble surface using the Pietre-Dure technique. Some of the marble eggs have been cut in half, revealing different representations and texture, creating the illusion of the object’s interior.

Expanding on the idea of the “archeology,” Kraus’s Offerings/Redemption– series (2009-2010) analyses the various ways that objects of mystery have been exchanged. The artist’s critique of customary practices from ancient Egypt to classical Rome, for instance, becomes fused with the decadent materials seen in statuary and tombs made during the Italian Renaissance. Roman Wedding, a work in progress, utilizes a life-size white marble daybed with inlays of semi-precious stones indicating the positioning of two ceremonial participants.

In 2007 Kraus installed Treasures (2007-2009), a series of seven one ton yellow marble sculptures, in an outdoor private collection located in California. Each piece is seated in green grass and bears different types of red marble arabesques, representing Kraus’s DNA historical markings. In May 2011 a new piece titled Bidet appeared in The Proposition’s group show titled Spring Round-Up. Kraus has designed the stage sets for Erzsébet: the Opera an upcoming theater production that focuses on the life of Elizabeth Báthory, The Blood Countess of Hungary.

Pavel Kraus passed away on April 15, 2024. Snap Editions will publish an obituary.