November 2026 / Ben Hirschkoff
Ben Hirschkoff, Slow Light, bisqued ceramic, beeswax, welded and brazed steel, 2026
In the Back Space /
Slow Light by Ben Hirschkoff
November 05 - 28, 2026
Opening Reception, Thursday, November 05, 5-8pm
Gallery Hours:
Friday–Sunday, 11am–4pm
Ben Hirschkoff wants the world to know that life on earth is derived from light from the sun that has been slowed down from light speed to life speed. Slow Light describes this idea as beeswax coated ceramic forms suspended each within its own geometric lattice of welded and brazed steel.
Thinking metaphorically about scientific theory has been a long term thread throughout Hirschkoff’s work. Slow Light reflects on the work of physicist Lene Vestergaard Hau, and on the work of his late father, who was also a research physicist.
ARTIST BIO // STATEMENT
With a history of hand building ceramic sculpture, Ben Hirschkoff’s practice brings a sense of play and exploration to an ever-evolving variety of media and materials. Tendencies in his work include the deconstruction and reassembling of recognizable forms and the celebration of incidental artifact. Blending subject and object, portrait with landscape, 2D and 3D, animate and inanimate Hirschkoff’s work encourages us to consider aspects of our everyday perspective that we may be taking for granted.
Ben Hirschkoff began his art career after developing a series of anthropomorphic mixed media ceramic sculpture while attaining his bachelor’s degree from the redwood cloister that is Humboldt State University. Armed with an artist statement that read like a revisioning of the theory of evolution as a struggle against the force of gravity, Ben moved to the city of San Francisco. While developing and exhibiting his art, Ben also volunteered as a ceramics tech at the City College of San Francisco and taught ceramics with homeless teens. In 2004 Ben relocated to Seattle to attend the University of Washington where he studied under Doug Jeck, Akio Takamori, and Jamie Walker, and met several visiting artists. Ben joined Soil Artist-Run Gallery in 2006. His work has been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally.