July 30 – September 1, 2024
Sales Gallery & Online
Jil Franke, Mike Jabbur, Brent Pafford, Olivia Tani
Jil Franke, Mike Jabbur, Brent Pafford, Olivia Tani
About the Artists
Jil Franke
St. Paul, MN
Jil Franke was introduced to ceramics when teaching art in Sydney, Australia. She handbuilds each geometrically designed functional piece of work using a darting technique on slabs. Surface decoration is created using wax resist and slips and finally they are fired in a wood kiln with a light salting. Her work has been exhibited both internationally and nationally, including Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei and Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Center, China. Private collections with her work include The American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Mike Jabbur
Williamsburg, VA
Mike Jabbur has a BA in graphic design from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, and an MFA in ceramics from Ohio University, Athens. He is currently an associate professor of art and ceramics as well as a department chair in rt & Art History at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Jabbur is inspired by historical ceramic objects for serving food and drink, contemporary industrial design, the dignity of craft, the act of teaching, the human experience of shared meals, and the concept of morning coffee. His ceramic work is crafted with use in mind and the home as setting. Dodging direct historical and contemporary references, Jabbur creates pots to reflect a timelessness and balance between tension and resolve. His pots are meant to enhance mundane rituals and breathe life affirming meaning into routine activities.
Brent Pafford
Eugene, OR
Brent Pafford received his BFA in sculpture and ceramics in 2011 from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina and his MFA in ceramics from Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina in 2014. Pafford explores the values of daily objects created, manufactured, or brought throughout generations. His most recent study of these objects, GlamCraft, “explores contemporary culture through assemblage of process and materials.” This experimentation with materials creates a meaningful conversation about the traditions of the craft movement.
Olivia Tani
Minneapolis, MN
Olivia Tani earned her BFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her work is driven by formal exploration and interest in the process of slab-building. During this process, Tani translates between three-dimensional form and a two-dimensional “blueprint.” She blends precise building techniques with experimentation to derive her forms. Though she is a functional potter, Tani “indulge[s] in moments of excess that guide [her] formal stylization,” creating forms that serve both as functional utilitarian objects and sculptural forms. She is interested in the way that the viewer interacts with the piece and the “haptic quality of masses and volumes.” Tani is a recipient of a 2017 Fogelberg Studio Fellowship at Northern Clay Center.