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Through his work, sculptor Joe Scanlan (born 1961) speaks in a profound sense about passing, spending, wasting, and marking time. In an effort to attach some practical use-value to the art object, Scanlan makes things that easily traffic within the discourse of post-minimalist, neo-referential, ecologically aware art-making. In a sense, he gives a report on his personal “economy,” and his pieces could be from a future exhibit in the Museum of Natural History as a collection of “artifacts” typifying domestic items of urban apartment dwellers of the late 20th century. In retaining their usefulness, the objects are kept from being viewed as isolated, specialized, or “meta-ized” art products. Instead they mark a place where the world of daily life meets the world mediated by art. He recently held his first solo exhibition at Robbin Lockett Gallery, Chicago. Scanlan earned a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design, Ohio; and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.