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Ian McDonald’s exhibition, Optimism (If You Want It), refers to the potential of objects to assume alternate levels of meaning when expanded, assembled, re-arranged, reduced, or re-configured. In exploring his ideas, McDonald fabricates several different models. Some are multiples of ceramic forms in different sizes and shapes arranged on table tops, pedestals, or in vitrines. Straddling the line between surplus industrial inventory and display specimens, the vessel-like vented objects suggest possible functions - models for war-room military field maneuvers or disparate objects coalescing into single functional entities. Other sculpted forms resemble organic structures like geodes or rocks - raw materials for some future function – on display as “natural history”. McDonald’s title urges viewers to process physical data positively, letting facts add up to a process that works for the best – socially, historically, and aesthetically.
McDonald graduated from UC Santa Barbara with an MFA in 2000 and currently teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute. His work is included in the collections of The Museo Internazionale della Ceramiche in Faenza, Italy, the International Sculpture Center, Denmark, and JP Morgan Chase in New York, among others.
Click here for Ian McDonald's biography.
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