Jeffrey Lloyd Dever
biography |
portfolio | artists listing
b. 1953, Taunton, Massachusetts
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007 Beyond The Basket, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Contemporary Baskets, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2005-06 Selected Works, Featured Artist, Function + Art, Chicago, IL
2004 50<>50: The Craft Continuum, Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT
An Exploration of Polymer Clay, Kentucky Museum of Arts and Design, Louisville, KY
2003 Polymer Possibilities: Jewelry and Beyond, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, MD
Moves in Polymer Clay, Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, Brookfield Craft Center,
Brookfield, CT
2002 Seeing Spots, Florida Craftsmen Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL, and Houston Center
for Contemporary Crafts, Houston, TX
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2006 500 Baskets, Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, Asheville, NC
2005 500 Brooches, Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, Asheville, NC
2004 400 Polymer Clay Designs, Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, Asheville, NC
1999 "Movers and Shapers", American Style, summer
1994 Polymer Clay Jewelry, Lark Books, New York, NY
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jeffrey Dever received his BFA degree from Atlantic Union College in 1976. He is founding partner and creative director of Dever Designs and its FreshArt illustration subsidiary in Laurel, MD. He has been on the contract/adjunct faculty of Maryland Institute College of Art since 1986, where he has taught illustration and graphic design. Jeffrey's polymer clay vessels and jewelry have been represented in several national invitational exhibitions and he is much sought after as an instructor.
ABOUT THE WORK
Nature is the muse that informs my aesthetics and instills in me a visual vocabulary. My quest is not to replicate God’s finest gifts of flora and fauna, but merely to enter into the dialogue.
While my baskets are all vessels, they are clearly more sculptural than functional. The fact that they are baskets at all is almost incidental to the poetic qualities I seek.
Each piece is born through a series of sketches, exploring a concept, a notion or merely a whim. The sketch matures into a fabricated form over which a wire frame is constructed and the wire basketry takes shape. Next, the polymer clay hollowware sections are built over the same forms. Through repeated cycles of fabrication and oven-curing, the pieces grow layer by layer. Each color you see is the actual color of the clay. The patterns and lines are not surface decoration or paint, but carved or incised details backfilled with contrasting colors of clay, cured at each stage. An individual piece can easily go through 20 – 30 fabrication/curing cycles and take weeks to complete. Various appendages are then fabricated through the same process over reinforced armatures. When the final assembly is finished the conversation is complete, but the dialogue continues.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007 Beyond The Basket, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Contemporary Baskets, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2005-06 Selected Works, Featured Artist, Function + Art, Chicago, IL
2004 50<>50: The Craft Continuum, Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT
An Exploration of Polymer Clay, Kentucky Museum of Arts and Design, Louisville, KY
2003 Polymer Possibilities: Jewelry and Beyond, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, MD
Moves in Polymer Clay, Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, Brookfield Craft Center,
Brookfield, CT
2002 Seeing Spots, Florida Craftsmen Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL, and Houston Center
for Contemporary Crafts, Houston, TX
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2006 500 Baskets, Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, Asheville, NC
2005 500 Brooches, Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, Asheville, NC
2004 400 Polymer Clay Designs, Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, Asheville, NC
1999 "Movers and Shapers", American Style, summer
1994 Polymer Clay Jewelry, Lark Books, New York, NY
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jeffrey Dever received his BFA degree from Atlantic Union College in 1976. He is founding partner and creative director of Dever Designs and its FreshArt illustration subsidiary in Laurel, MD. He has been on the contract/adjunct faculty of Maryland Institute College of Art since 1986, where he has taught illustration and graphic design. Jeffrey's polymer clay vessels and jewelry have been represented in several national invitational exhibitions and he is much sought after as an instructor.
ABOUT THE WORK
Nature is the muse that informs my aesthetics and instills in me a visual vocabulary. My quest is not to replicate God’s finest gifts of flora and fauna, but merely to enter into the dialogue.
While my baskets are all vessels, they are clearly more sculptural than functional. The fact that they are baskets at all is almost incidental to the poetic qualities I seek.
Each piece is born through a series of sketches, exploring a concept, a notion or merely a whim. The sketch matures into a fabricated form over which a wire frame is constructed and the wire basketry takes shape. Next, the polymer clay hollowware sections are built over the same forms. Through repeated cycles of fabrication and oven-curing, the pieces grow layer by layer. Each color you see is the actual color of the clay. The patterns and lines are not surface decoration or paint, but carved or incised details backfilled with contrasting colors of clay, cured at each stage. An individual piece can easily go through 20 – 30 fabrication/curing cycles and take weeks to complete. Various appendages are then fabricated through the same process over reinforced armatures. When the final assembly is finished the conversation is complete, but the dialogue continues.