This sculptural artwork from Brian Benfer’s Untitled (POP : pieces on pedestals) series is composed of mixed media placed on a pedestal of fired slab ceramic that has been painted with white wall primer. The “mixed-media” element of this ongoing serial work varies widely from one POP piece to another, but always Benfer draws from the everyday. His practice is smart but like any high art appears simple and effortless, created of nothing more than was required. This elevation of the everyday to high art is not new, it is nuanced, and Benfer’s response is fresh. It nods to part of a continuum of his larger practice that deconstructs the economy of the fine art object in the same moment as achieving the aims of art’s purest form: thought. Benfer, who shares a birthday with Duchamp could not resist honoring the reference of his action, nor the opportunity to add his own spin. We see the sentiments behind this work small sculpture emerge in early and ongoing works, from Benfer’s large-scale installations, through his life-size industrial ceramics and now into his “paintings.”

This POP is a fun and playful, yet powerful sample of Brain Benfer’s contemporary sculpture. His work has exhibited nationally and internationally and is in a growing list of museum and corporate collections. Benfer earned a Master of Fine Arts from Rutgers University in Sculpture, is most recognized for his work in ceramics, and was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. The Gallery featured work from the POP series in a 2021 2-man gallery exhibition All that remains.