Eight years ago Bob Coates had a solo exhibit at Sinclair. At that time, he presented his functional and decorative pottery. Fast-forward to now, and his sculptural works have become much more sophisticated and nuanced in style and subject.

An associate professor at Sinclair Community College, Coates is presenting 41 of his sculptural works at the Burnell R. Roberts Triangle Gallery at Sinclair. It’s a three-week exhibit that’s ending on Thursday.

Dayton art lovers will probably recognize some of this pieces in this exhibit, as Coates has shown his works both at the Dayton Visual Arts Center and Rosewood Gallery in Kettering. One of those is “Pope Joan,” a sculptural commentary on an alleged event that took place in Europe long ago. The figure’s face is masculine, but Coates gave him a maternal body.

“The last time that a pope was elected, I got really interested in their costuming. Around the same time on the news there was a story about a woman during the Middle Ages who had disguised herself as a man. She got pregnant and had a miscarriage, so they called her Pope Joan,” said Coates.

Another nod to the Catholic faith appears in “St. Francis.” The man in monk’s clothing is cradling a dove in one hand and petting a wolf with the other.

“Mary Help of Christians wanted a statue for their St.Francis garden. I did some research, and I knew about his giving sermons to the birds and rabbits following him,” said Coates, a 12-year Fairborn resident. “But evidently there was this wolf terrorizing the village. So he made a deal with this wolf. If the villagers fed him, he would stop terrorizing the villagers.”

“Bob’s work invites re-examination. Whether it’s a narrative sculpture or a traditional, academic drawing, there are subtle visual surprises and points of discovery that invite the viewer to return to the work again and again as it slowly reveals itself over time,” said Pat McClelland, Sinclair galleries coordinator/collections curator. “The work also has an undeniable charm. Even work expressing recognizable social commentary retains an element of playfulness.”

More recent works include “Attention Must be Paid” and “The Sun, the Earth, and the Moon.” The former was juried into Rosewood’s HWD 2012 show. This is the first showing of the celestial bodies where the sun presides over the other two, that are ensconced in a triangular clay pyramid over a wooden trellislike base.

“This piece actually started when I took a bronze casting class this past summer at Oxford University. The sun was a last-minute work, where I stuck matchsticks around the head,” said Coates. “I liked it so well I thought, ‘I’m going to make something more out of this.’ ”

“Lizard-Men Fountain” is rife with texture and imagery in greens, blues and golds. “Faces: Variations on a Theme” is a series of about 40 countenances in various colors wrapped in cabbage-like frames.

“The fountain is based on a subject I’ve explored before, created as lizard men on pots,” said Coates. “I’m just pulling up an older theme and reworking it.”

Some of these pieces are functional, like the pots and vessels in his first Sinclair show but a lot more interesting to behold.

Coates received his Bachelor of Fine Art from Wright State University with a painting major and a drawing minor. His Master of Fine Art was obtained from the University of Pennsylvania in painting, printmaking and drawing.