Ceramic sculptor Peter Gourfain, known for his portrayal of the struggles of the debased, the hero, the ideological and the mundane, will present a public lecture at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Room 217 of the UC Davis Art Building. The lecture is part of Gourfain's 10-day residency on the campus, which is supported by the Robert Arneson Endowment, the UC Davis College of Letters and Science and the Davis Humanities Institute. While Gourfain is on campus, he will be working in the artist's studio known as TB 9. "We'd like people to come over and talk with him while he is working," says Annabeth Rosen, a UC Davis art professor. Gourfain's work spans many mediums including ceramic sculpture, wood carving, bronze casting, printmaking and painting. He is considered a storyteller and chronicler of our times, insisting on using the reality of daily life and ordinary human activities as the basis for epic depictions in his sculptures. His large-scale commissions include 24 bronzes for the Nueberger Museum in Purchase, N.Y., as well as works for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and for the National Park Service for the Lowell Historic Preservation Committee. Gourfain's work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art and Jewish Museum in New York, among others. Gourfain has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Skowhegan School of Art and Kent State University.