PJ Hargraves | LUX Center for the Arts | Art Gallery, Classes, Summer Camps & Outreach
 

PJ Hargraves

PJ Hargraves

Artist
Profile Location
Lincoln , NE
Biography

PJ Hargraves is from Philadelphia Pennsylvania and earned a MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2020. Before moving to Nebraska, he receive a BFA in Ceramics from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2017 along with a K-12 Art Education Certificate. During undergraduate school PJ worked for two consecutive summers as a staff member at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in 2015 and 2016 in Newcastle Maine.

PJ has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. PJ was an invited participant in the first Mid-Atlantic Keramik Exchange in Reykjavik Iceland in 2019. In addition to teaching classes and workshops for kids and adults, PJ enjoys the labor of the studio, including building and fixing kilns and helping students troubleshoot problems with materials and firing.

Artist Statement

I tap into a playful innocence through the gestural use of clay and my sculptures are romanticized amalgamations of a collective lived experience. Through my process, I explore the physical nature of working with clay by harnessing the tactility of the material, crystalizing evidence of the joy I find in making. I utilize accessible imagery to create imaginative and humorous sculpture; this affords the viewer a light-hearted moment in an otherwise overwhelmingly complicated human existence.

My work is both strange and familiar. By embracing a skewed perspective of recognizable form I find beauty and charm in altered perception. I draw inspiration from tchotchkes, souvenirs and commemorative objects, adopting a simplified and exaggerated approach to representing figures, animals, landscape and objects. I also reference historical ceramics, relating and positioning my work within this rich vocabulary. My sculptures function as artifacts of contemporary life that respond to diverse influences from current events to ancient history. Ceramics has long been used as a vehicle for recording and perpetuating culture through the creation of utilitarian objects and sculptural symbols. My work is navigating the territory between these two methods of making by establishing a medium between recognizable form and emblematic function.

Medium
Ceramics
 
 

Exhibitions Featuring this Artist

Allison Arkush
Katie Bosley
Neil Celani
Katherine Cox
Dehmie Dehmlow
PJ Hargraves
Kristyn Robe
Juston Rominger
Taylor Sijan
Olivia Tani
Iren Tete
Mallory Celani
Amythest Warrington
Dec
06
12/6/19 to 12/27/19
Multiple Mediums
Jim Aden
Liana Agnew
Joel Anderson
Mark Arnold
Michael Ashley
Posey Bacopoulos
Shawn Teseo Ballarin
Green Bee
Jessica Brandl
Wes Brown
Matt Bukrey
Larry Buller
Donna Burdic
Anne Burton
Elaine Buss
Jen Carlson
Neil Celani
Austin Coudriet
Drew Curtright
Lindsey Day
Amanda Durig
Adrienne Eliades
Paul Eshelman
Katelyn Farneth
Lynette Fast
Anna Gadek
PJ Hargraves
Mark Hargraves
Sarah Jentsch
Kyle Johns
G.V. Kelley
Josh Knutson
Mary Koziol
Brad Krieger
Louis LaBudda
Lynn Latta
Clay Leonard
Sam Loeffler
Carol Long
Anika Major
Susan McGilvrey
Tom Meyers
Catie Miller
Katie Nieland
Kyle Nobles
Samantha Oliver
Sarah Olsen
Cathy Patterson
Christy Puetz
Brittany Rea
Sarah Rowe
Sophia Ruppert
Erin Ryan
Agnes Seebass
Sarah Shoot
José Sierra
Sarah Smelser
Shannon Smith
Maria Spiess
Susan Stark-Johnson
Evan Stoler
Patty Talbert
Harry Tompkin
Tara Tonsor
April White
Tara Dawley
Nov
06
11/6/20 to 12/30/20
Multiple Mediums
PJ Hargraves
Jun
04
6/4/21 to 6/25/21
Ceramics
Brett Anderson
Owen Buffington
Matt Bukrey
Anne Burton
Jordan Buschur
Neil Celani
Heather Jo Davis
Lindsey Day
Matthew Dercole
Amanda Durig
Katelyn Farneth
Gerit Grimm
PJ Hargraves
Luke Huling
Anthony Park Kascak
G.V. Kelley
Brian Kluge
Michael Ian Larsen
Julia Leggent
Elise Loomis
Jon Love
Bartholomew Lynch
Kristen Martincic
Bri Murphy
Nathan Murray
Liana Owad
McKenzie Phelps
Jason Piccoli
Kristin Powers Nowlin
Kate Running
Bill Shaffer
Maria Spiess
Susan Stark-Johnson
Sara Truman
Stephanie Leach Vendetti
Cody Weber
Taylor Woolwine
Mar
04
3/4/22 to 5/27/22
Multiple Mediums

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