Forrest Sincoff Gard is an artist and educator. He received his BFA in Ceramics from Ohio University in 2009, completed post-baccaleaute studies at the University of Florida in 2011, and earned his MFA in Studio Art from Louisiana State University in 2014. From 2014–2018 Forrest worked as an associate editor for Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated. Currently Forrest is teaching ceramics and 3D design at the University of North Georgia Oconee. He has also taught in Cortona, Italy, as part of the University of Georgia’s study abroad program, at Ohio State University, and Wesleyan College.
Forrest has shown his ceramic art and interactive installations in exhibitions across the United States, Europe, and South Korea, including the 8th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale at the Icheon World Ceramics Center in South Korea; the American Museum of Ceramic Art in California; The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, The Columbus Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee.
Forrest has completed short and long term artist residencies at Red Lodge Clay Center, Arrowmont, the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland, and at the Mill Hill Community Arts Center in Macon, Georgia, where he received a $25,000 grant to install a large-scale public artwork.
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Artist Statement
“At some point as we get older, we are made to feel guilty for playing. We are told that it is unproductive, a waste of time, even sinful. The play that remains is, like league sports, mostly very organized, rigid, and competitive. We strive to always be productive, and if an activity doesn’t teach us a skill, make us money, or get on the boss’s good side, then we feel we should not be doing it. Sometimes the sheer demands of daily living seem to rob us of the ability to play.” -Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute of Play
Legally, I have been an adult for almost a decade. During that time I have experienced (more than once) the feeling of having too many tasks and not enough hours in the day to accomplish them. When this happens, a switch inside of me is flipped and I am unable to have fun; I stop playing and I usually become depressed. As Brown asserts, our culture actually makes us feel guilty for the times we are not being productive. As children we are encouraged to play, our parents arrange play dates, and we develop physically and emotionally through play. I am interested in the carry over from child’s play to adult play and am curious why some adults stop playing while others continue. My interactive installations aim at providing gallery visitors (the majority of which are grownups) the feeling of being able to play. This shift in the traditional gallery experience allows the viewer to interact with a ceramic object in a new way. My work allows people an opportunity to briefly escape their grown-up realities; a feeling that is often foreign to many adults in today’s overly competitive culture.
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