Collection: Bosco Bae

"Looking back and reflecting on the present state of things – while holding an active imagination of potential futures – there is a tension. A tension that is embodied in a deeply saturated way which retains, simultaneously, the knots and entangled degrees of hope and despair; an optimism and pessimism held together and informed by cyclical reproductions that rhyme in familiar tones with the past. Hope and despair, in this sense, become abstract potentials that emerge out of contingencies within a matrix of epigenetic changes and ecologies of nurture. What will the seeds and saplings become? The same family produced both John and Charles.

This work continues my exploration with the notion that there is meaning and beauty within the myriad of struggles, hardships, tragedies, and imperfections presented before us in all their messiness and flaws; to explore the relationship between form and content through outlets and avenues for expressions of suffering, discontent, and frustration while leaving space for optimism and hope to breathe and play with the dissonance."

Dr. Bosco Bae started his journey with clay and the potter’s wheel in 1998. He has since experienced ceramic studios in Salt Lake City, Boston, Chicago, Icheon, Tokyo, Prague, and Johannesburg. From 2021-23, he taught wheel-thrown pottery at the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg and was Artist-in-Residence for 2022-23. He is currently a visiting assistant professor of religion at Centre College in Kentucky. Prior to which, he was visiting assistant professor of religious studies and director for student diversity and belonging at the University of Lynchburg. He is also a research associate for the Center for Mediation in Africa at the University of Pretoria and, more recently, he launched a non-profit organization in Chicago in memory of his brother, Gregory Bae, that explores and navigates the terrain of ‘art advancing justice’ for BIPOC communities.