This exhibition is a gateway; it represents a destination achieved and a transition engaged. In this new body of work Jeffrey deepens his meditation on metaphysical symbolism while broadening his frame of reference by adding a new dimension.

The artist’s approach, throughout his many years of throwing and assembling vessels, has been to operate with self-imposed constraints and in a deliberative and iterative process. His original victory was mastery of the sphere; acquiring the skill to reliably throw the perfect spherical vessel. Once achieved, his territory expanded to elements or derivatives of this sphere; the bifurcated sphere, the ovoid, the disk, the stem. Combining and recombining these elements into various stacked compositions over several years has resulted in a lexicon of preferred forms and associations. The examples in this exhibition are the crowning culmination of years of development and refinement of his technique and aesthetic.

Hitherto, Jeffrey’s iconic totemic compositions of hemispherical components have been executed almost exclusively in matte black, with his signature burnished and patinated surfaces. Having reached an apotheosis of well-proportioned elegance and compositional sophistication, he has now entered in earnest the fresh territory of color. He has cloacked three garnitures of three vessels each in solid colors; golden yellow, indigo blue and gossamer white. His final innovation is an expansion of the lexicon of forms with which he builds; arcs, cylinders, truncated cones, and protruding rods all make their appearance for the first time.

What remains constant in this new work is the evocation of time and transformation; time-worn surfaces on forms that symbolize transition and stages of existence. Jeffrey’s vessels are talismans, evidence of our battle to persevere and the forces that define our battle; entropy and balance.

- Damon Crain