Pat Hoffman at Missoula Art Museum

Pat Hoffman: Polar Opposites
Missoula Art Museum
July 7 – October 31, 2011

This ceramic wall installation by Patrick Hoffman is a masterful composition taking advantage of the sensibilities of gravity and magnetism by organizing the objects into a unified composition in the space. Hoffman organizes ceramic objects into a suggestive cluster of molecular and organic worlds.

Hoffman was born in Nebraska, and currently resides in Bozeman, MT where he teaches Fine Arts at Bozeman High School. In 1997, he moved to Laramie, WY where he received his BFA in ceramics and his BA in Art Education. Currently, he is finishing his MA in Art Education through the Creative Pulse program at The University of Montana. Hoffman’s ceramic work has been heavily influenced by the agriculture of the Midwest, as he reflects: “The landscape of my childhood has embedded itself into the content of the sculptural forms I create.”

Hoffman continues, “Considering the micro and the macro, I have realized ways in which a simple molecular cluster can share a similarity in form to the agricultural landscapes and sprawling urban developments of human populations when viewed from satellite images from space. I am keenly aware of the parallels involved in extending our sense of vision with microscopes to view the molecular and smaller worlds and the use of various types of telescopes to view the greater universe. My current work is inspired by these repetitive structures and organic patterns that emerge from life.”