Branden Lawless, born and raised in southeastern Kansas, is a first-year MFA candidate at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. After obtaining his BFA from Kansas State University in 2021, he would complete a post baccalaureate program at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In 2019, Branden attended Lorenzo de’Medici, an international Italian institute in Florence, Italy. His semester abroad would influence a short-term residency at Studio Pescarella in Pietrasanta, Italy during the summer of 2022.

My ceramic work creates a narrative for my extraordinary world, Rat Bastard University. RBU is a cast of characters that is not your mothers art. They are unapologetically themselves, rebellious, mischievous, and flat-out bastards. While humorous, they portray the realities of youthful arrogance, love, addiction, and unconventional life experience. I like to think our world is colliding with RBU, and my works mirrors their universe and our own.

Drawing inspiration from aesthetics of fashion, animation, and pop culture, my objective is to create interactive work that evokes a sense of nostalgia and relatability. I use vibrant color palettes reminiscent of pop art, with contrasting grungy, raw-black mark making on top.

 While discovering an extensive history of my universe, I begin to create new narratives and accolades for Rat Bastard University through ceramics and screen printing. As I blur the line between reality and RBU, I invite the viewer to follow along with the methodical and deranged world.