Roger Hankins (b. 1947) works across painting, assemblage and ceramics, examining the aesthetics of mass production while emphasizing the physical processes of making. He earned his B.A. from University of California, Davis, in 1976, and was Arneson’s studio assistant from 1976 to 1979. Hankins received his M.F.A. from California State University, Sacramento, in 1980. In his paintings and assemblages, Hankins developed what he called a “workplace formula,” appropriating commercially produced imagery—including hotel art, food and musical instruments—and combining it with geometric abstraction. By dismantling and reassembling these familiar images, he questioned distinctions between mass-produced decoration and fine art. Hankins later served as gallery director at the College of the Holy Cross, retiring in 2019. He subsequently returned to ceramics, a medium rooted in his UC Davis experience, creating tactile works that emphasize manipulation, construction and the direct encounter between hand and clay.