Represented by Candita Clayton Gallery

Topher Gent is a 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 BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Design from the University of Bergen, Norway. His career in design and product development has spanned luxury goods, furniture and lighting, wearable technology, and material research. This sustained engagement with materials, making and research informs his current approach to creating discursive objects that critically engage their position within the built environment.

He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Experimental and Foundation Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, where his material-driven studio practice and commitment to design education are deeply interconnected. In addition to his teaching, he publishes Object Report, a hybrid design journal that engages his studio practice and offers critical discourse about designed objects and material culture.