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Acrylic, fabric, movement detector, mp3, found objects. An assemblage from the series of portraits titled America, inspired by the novel by Franz Kafka. A series of faces – Evelyn, Norman, Lulu, and Koby – represent archetypes of Americans, created from modeling clay, acrylic paint and found objects from children's toys and consumer articles, items left behind by our consumer society. Neuman calls his work “fusion art”. Each portrait has its own voice installed on a sound chip or mp3 player. The combination of colors and used materials evokes a very eccentric visual impression, presenting the world in its current twisted form, a form which absolutely must be corrected. Massive consumption, toxic waste, ethnic prejudice, hate, and heaps of useless objects that our culture produces day in, day out. Born in Prague, Shalom Neuman has lived in New York since 1980. Most of his family were killed at Auschwitz; his surviving family was forced to emigrate from communist Czechoslovakia in 1948. He received his MFA in painting and sculpture from Carnegie-Mellon University, and he completed a post graduate fellowship in painting and sculpture at Indiana University. The almost complete series of portraits could be seen at the National Gallery in Prague in 2011. His works are also represented in private and public collections around the world (National Gallery in Prague, Guggenheim Museum in New York, Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain in Nice, Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art).