Jeffrey Clancy
Born 1976, USA
Lives and works in Portland Maine
The American artist Jeffrey Clancy (b. 1976, Pennsylvania) currently lives and works in Portland, Maine (USA), where he is a professor at the Maine College of Art. He studied ‘Metal and Design’ at Buckinghamshire University in High Wycombe (UK), ‘Fine Metal studies’ at the Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, and ‘Metalsmithing and Jewelry’ at San Diego University in California, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2005.
Art object or Object art are terminologies whose arrangement lies in the discussion on the art-craft industry, or arts-and-crafts. Jeffrey Clancy, a Metalsmith by training, is loyal to his medium but not averse to the questions being presented in this debate. And in this debate – in which he is also the central figure and is thereby confronted – Jeffrey finds parallels with connotations, societal structures, standards and norms that became imposed through the course of history.
In his career Jeffrey, as reflected in an extensive CV, has built up a skill that can best be defined as ease and loyalty with respect to his material, his medium. His involvement in the debate, his knowledge and handcrafting skills, have thus put him in a position in which he is able to question his own medium. In so doing he creates objects that leave the observer in doubt, and he poses questions that allow the diverse pros and cons in the art-craft debate to be brought into circulation.
Kurt Geraerts