PRESS RELEASE

Ian McDonald’s exhibition, Wearing, refers to the displays of non-functional ceramic objects hung, assembled, or arranged to evoke clothing or containers re-configured for puzzling purposes.  As in past bodies of work, multiple forms in different sizes and shapes are grouped to suggest mass produced items of quotidian  or even specific functionality – in this case, “things” that are worn down or out or hung up to be worn later.  The hardness of fired clay makes it difficult to relate the hanging forms to “things worn” or to imagine what their industrial use might be, but McDonald has long enjoyed stretching the possibilities of both forms and functions. His title urges viewers to process the physical inventory and its functions as a mental exercise, but otherwise, to enjoy the shapes, colors, and arrangements for the aesthetic harmonies they may suggest.

McDonald graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2000 with an MFA and currently teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute. McDonald was part of the exhibition “Bay Area Now 5” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2008 and his work is included in the collections of The Museo Internazionale della Ceramiche in Faenza, Italy, and the International Ceramic Center, Denmark.