Joseph Kurhajec (b. 1938) was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and earned a graduate degree in studio art from the University of Wisconsin in 1961, studying direct-metal sculpture with Leo Steppat. Following graduation he spent two months in the Yucatán studying Mayan art and archaeology, an experience that shaped his lasting interest in ritual and totemic form. He opened a short-lived gallery, The New Generation, in Racine before relocating to New York City in 1963, where he had his first solo exhibition at the Allan Stone Gallery and was later included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s “Young America 1965.” Working in sculpture, collage, and printmaking, Kurhajec has divided his time since the 1970s among New York, Rome, the Yucatán, and France, incorporating rope, bone, fiber, and forged iron into figures Artsy’s artist database describes as “animals, totems and characters.” He remains active as of this writing.