Jacob Foran 

b. 1983, Urbana, IL

Foran works primarily with clay and the artist’s process centers on a conversation between creating and unearthing. He approaches the material to learn and access information about what it means to exist and experience. His work happens intuitively is as interested in the interaction with materials and objects as with the outcome. The nature of clay gives rise to relationships between hands and mind—between artist, object, and space or context.
The artist draws inspiration from the head and face as well as the ceramic vessel, both of which examine inner, psychological space. Weaving together notions of ephemerality and metamorphosis, ceramic figural sculptures and vessels probe at the multi-dimensionality of emotion, identity, and memory. Each object ‘shifts’ in space -- containing and traveling through void moments-- leaving behind past representation, revealing a spectrum of conditions and the complexities of the human condition.