The Clay Studio presents Vestiges: Works by married sculptors Chris Dufala and Elena Lourenco. Aesthetically, both artists pay keen attention to the quality of the surface in their works, utilizing objective and occasionally figurative forms and fragments. Additionally, there is clear sense of narrative, history, and the effects of age and time in their compositions.

However, there are distinct differences in the conceptual approaches to each artist's body of work. Chris Dufala's ceramic work toys with aspects of trompe l'oeil and represents a relationship between domestication and the natural world with a focus on waste and convenience in our society. This notion of deception both formally and conceptually is key as it resonates with everything in this world Chris finds dishonest, contrary, and generally lacking integrity. Whereas Elena Lourenco's mixed media sculptures explore evolving relationships between the complex structures of human creation and emotion, empathy and apathy, desire, pain and loss: setting our physical reality against our spiritual or emotional expectations. Her overlapping and juxtaposed imagery, references both our created domestic life and the natural world, and alludes to the intangible and emotional effects on the human psyche.

The exhibition will be on display at the Clay Studio of Missoula from October 3-31, 2014, with an opening on Friday, October 3 from 5:30-9pm.