About the Artist

Christopher Warren Elam entered the art world through the back door in the building trades. Starting as a tile-setting apprentice in 2004, he eventually discovered the exciting world of mosaics at a “green building” convention in Chicago. After moving to Bloomington, Indiana in 2010, Christopher Warren Elam started Sycamore Tile Works, a standard tile-setting company that specialized in mosaic fabrication. In 2017, the company was rebranded “Omosaico” as Elam shifted towards a more regular studio practice creating tile mosaics and contemporary fine art. A student of the Chicago Mosaic School, Elam has studied extensively with Italian mosaic artist Matteo Randi, along with a host of other mosaicists from around the world including Verdiano Marzi, Karen Ami, Gary Drostle, and Toyoharu Kii. His work can be found in public installations, private collections and has been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. Elam’s academic background in intercultural and religious studies continues to inform his work. He currently lives in the hill country of southern Indiana along with his wife and son. In his free time, Elam enjoys writing, listening to music, cycling, hiking and boating.

Artist Statement

Despite the daily realities of poverty, racism and militarism, I still believe the world is infused with grace and beauty. Creating mosaics is one of the ways I find healing and participate in these mysteries surrounding life. Through the slow and repetitive process of cutting and setting pieces of glass and stone in mortar, an image often comes to me as a thing to explore. I create mosaics because they are slow enough to offer me the gift of time to discern a thought, an emotion, an experience, an image or some other curiosity and then make a beautiful expression of it. Artists, in my mind, are uniquely situated to try and try again to bring about an encounter with Beauty.