Brent Pafford
Brent Pafford
Brent Pafford is a ceramic artist currently based in Eugene, Oregon. Pafford has exhibited nationally since completing his MFA in ceramics in 2014, including most recently as an invited artist at the 2018 American Pottery Festival at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. In 2015, he won the Retired Professors Merit Award at NCECA’s Student Juried Exhibition; in 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Jury Prize at the ArtFields Art Competition; and also in 2016 he received a Presidential Scholarship to attend Anderson Ranch in Colorado. Pafford currently has work showing in Portland, OR, New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC, and has conducted a two-day workshop at Clay by the Bay in San Francisco.
I explore the values implicit in objects encountered through everyday use. I investigate the role of ceramic objects as vessels of memory; of touch and labor; of time and energy. I discover unexpected interactions revealed in disparate materials, contrary textures, and incompatible forms. By counterpoising tactility and fragility, anxiety and absurdity, I create objects which invite use and exploration, and react to contemporary dialogues of commoditized identity in object, form, and gesture.
