Abe lived and worked in Essex County, New Jersey as a janitor and later as a furniture craftsman. In the 1960s he returned to Virginia.

Abe opened a furniture repair and antiques business. Abe made fanciful useful furniture by taking parts that weren’t broken from different piece and marrying them together. In 1976 he began to make his sculptural pieces of animals and humans. He would find trees and add what was needed to complete the figure. His heads were made from a “secret” mixture of sawdust, glaze and additives to make a formidable head.

Abe held services in his home on Sundays for a small congregation. Ann Oppenheimer discovered him around 1985 and brought his work to the world’s attention. He moved back to his daughters in New Jersey a few years before his death.

George Viener and Abe Criss 1992

 

 

 

 

 

 

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