Rob Raphael is a former Resident Artist of the Clay Studio. He received his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2004 and his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000. Raphael is a sculptor and installation artist. His installation, to be housed in our Harrison Gallery, incorporates lustered ceramic medallions and a peristyle like structure with cushioned columns encrusted with flowers. The medallions, created from multiple parts and attached to fabric encased foam cushions, are hung on the walls throughout the space.
"Anyone can reflect upon the decorative arts whether experienced through the mediums of wallpaper, furniture, flower arrangement, jewelry, or a manicured garden. I am not creating something new, but a new understanding of something that already exists. My use of the decorative becomes the code for my language of obsession, pleasure, desire, duality, excess, and sexuality. I am abstracting something that we already understand to be beautiful. The pervasiveness of the decorative arts exists environmentally. The decorative is often seen as superficial but I believe in its power to seduce the viewer into greater depths. "
Rob Raphael
