Represented by Candita Clayton Gallery

Topher Gent is a craft-based designer, researcher, and educator. Through his multifaceted practice, he explores questions of materiality, craft, and design in an increasingly digital and dematerialized world. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, his practice spans furniture and art objects, ceramics, critical craft, and design theory.

Topher holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and a Master of Design from the Universitetet i Bergen, Norway. At RISD, his foundation in American Studio Furniture traditions and contemporary design practices were later complemented by exposure to design research in Europe. This background now informs his approach to making discursive objects that critically engage their position within the built environment.

His career demonstrates a unique synthesis of creative practice, operational strategy, and applied research. His work in design and product development spans luxury goods, furniture design, wearable technology, and material research, always maintaining close proximity to manufacturing at various scales. This experience is balanced with his material-driven studio practice as an object-maker and deep commitment to art and design education. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Experimental and Foundation Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. In addition to his teaching, he publishes Object Report, a hybrid design journal that engages his studio practice and offers a critical discourse about designed objects and material culture.