"Divergent Forms" brings together the work of Jennifer Martin, George Taylor, and Ben Pranger—three artists who approach material, structure, and identity from distinctly different directions. Their practices diverge, yet each reveals a careful attention to how form can hold memory, presence, and the traces of thought.
Jennifer Martin’s ceramic vessels are rooted in the physicality of the body and the histories it carries. She works within the traditions of pottery while allowing herself to move beyond their constraints, shaping forms that echo human asymmetry and the subtle marks of lived experience. Lines and impressions accumulate on the surface like records of touch, suggesting layers of memory, identity, and personal history. Through groupings, pairings, and human-scaled arrangements, Martin shifts the vessel away from function and into a space of reflection. Her use of traditional glazes and exposed clay emphasizes the connection between surface and skin, reinforcing the idea that the stories we carry are inseparable from the bodies we inhabit.
George Taylor works with slab-built ceramic bottles and panels that serve as supports for images of the figure. His practice has evolved from direct self-portraiture toward more universal representations, often showing the body from the back or side. These figures are rendered through line and color, interacting with the flat geometry of his rectangular bottle forms. Taylor’s work reflects both a personal search for belonging and a response to feeling marginalized within the larger art world. Each piece becomes an assertion of visibility and presence, transforming clay into a site of representation and resilience.
Ben Pranger constructs wall-based works from carefully assembled wooden elements. His forms grow gradually, piece by piece, according to simple structural rules that allow for complex results. Some works stretch outward as airy, linear pathways; others condense into stepped configurations that suggest small architectural systems. These constructions map a kind of evolving mental or spatial process—recursive, layered, and continually shifting. With the addition of color and pattern in recent years, Pranger’s works operate at the intersection of sculpture and painting, using repetition and rhythm to guide the viewer’s movement across the surface.
Together, the works in "Divergent Forms" demonstrate how three distinct approaches—vessel, figure, and constructed structure—can expand the possibilities of form. The exhibition highlights the ways material can record experience, assert identity, or generate new spatial ideas, offering viewers multiple points of entry into the artists’ investigations of shape, meaning, and presence.
Learn more:
https://artscouncilofprinceton.org/event/divergent-forms/
You may also like the following events from Arts Council of Princeton:
- Next Thursday, 15th January, 07:00 pm, Story & Verse: A Storytelling, Poetry, and Spoken Word Open Mic in Princeton
- Next Sunday, 18th January, 02:00 pm, ART OF the Mocktail in Princeton
- This month, 27th January, 06:30 pm, PRINCETON CRIT | Small Group Critique in Princeton
Also check out other
Arts events in Princeton,
Exhibitions in Princeton,
Fine Arts events in Princeton.
