Spencer Cheek

Spencer creates sculptures inspired by an interest in how objects mediate our internal experiences and the physical world. Questioning the expression of figurative work as a millennial-long human activity, his works interrogate how the creation and possession of images of ourselves functions as behavioral practice. Clay is a potent material for these questions as it connects neolithic objects to kitsch mass-produced figurines in an unbroken chain of creative engagement with representation and object-hood. Metaphorically, the transformation of clay to ceramic as one that mirrors the artistic process that sees formless intangible thought become hardened externalized object. In this paradigm, the kiln acts as a fixing agent that negotiates the boundary between the imagined and the real.