Gross, Chaim (1904-91), American sculptor, born in Austria. He studied art briefly in Budapest and Vienna and, after arriving in New York City in 1921, studied sculpture with the Polish-American sculptor Elie Nadelman and the American sculptor Robert Laurent. During the 1930s he worked for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration, and became an American citizen in 1934. Gross's first works were carvings of human figures—usually circus performers or mothers and children—chiefly in wood, sometimes in stone.

Although the cylindrical wood block required a compact, stylized treatment, his figures show a vital sense of movement, as in Handlebar Riders (1935, Museum of Modern Art, New York City) and Girl on a Wheel (1940, Metropolitan Museum, New York City). From 1947 on, Judaic themes dominated his art. He wrote The Technique of Wood Carving in 1957, but thereafter turned increasingly to modeling figures in plaster for bronze sculpture.