Allison Baker

“For A Dollar and A Dream” memorializes the complexities of late-stage capitalism, illuminating the aspirations and struggles of the American working class and working poor. Drawing from the concrete forms of postwar Spomenik monuments in Eastern Europe, Allison Baker’s work reflects the myths and contradictions of American life.

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By reimagining monuments through the lens of working-class experience, the work challenges the false promise of meritocracy and the American Dream. Incorporating symbols of survival—low cost food, lottery tickets, cigarettes— Allison approaches them with tenderness rather than judgment venerating the discarded items in bronze. 

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These works create space in galleries and museums where working-class lives, often overlooked or simplified, appear with dignity and complexity. Allison’s sculptures stand as mirrors, asking us to confront the realities of class immobility in America today.