Brian McCutcheon's Sculptures for Charles McGee Park at The Sheperd in Detroit
Charles McGee Legacy Park at The Shepherd in Detroit, MI. Photo Courtesy Ignition Arts, LLC.
Brian McCutcheon (MFA Ceramics 1995) founder and owner of Ignition Arts LLC, designed, fabricated, and installed the sculptures for the Charles McGee Legacy Art Park at the new Library Street Collective’s The Shepherd, which opened on May 18, 2024. He was approached by Library Street Collective to propose a sculpture/play park based on the work of Charles McGee after previously collaborating with Jason REVOK Williams on a public art project in California.
In reviewing McGee’s body of work, McCutcheon proposed the three sculpture installations that are now on The Shepherd’s campus. These include the first large-scale figurative sculptures based on “Play Patterns II” (2011), a large-scale version of the Linkage Series that allows the viewer to walk through a multi-layered McGee painting, and a series of benches based on “Rhapsody in Black and White” (2008). McGee approved plans for the park before his passing in 2021.
The figurative sculptures and benches are steel armatures, CNC router cut foam, fiberglass, and resin, and painted with Matthews Paint products. The Linkage project is laser-cut steel, galvanized, and painted with Matthews.
Charles McGee Legacy Park during construction. Photo courtesy of Ignition Arts, LLC.
Charles McGee Legacy Park sculpture transport. Photo courtesy of Ignition Arts, LLC.
The project approached the fabrication stage just as the COVID-19 lockdown began in the Spring of 2020. McCutcheon said, “Much of the entire project was delayed or stalled for a multitude of reasons but we had amazing support from Library Street Collective in the process and they really went above and beyond to see the commission completed.” He also noted unique factors of the site and installation, “The sculptures sit on top of a former building site and that was most likely demolished in-situ leaving old foundations and debris making for an unstable geological survey report. The result is that the foundations under the sculpture are massive and deep; there is much more material underground than above.”
McCutcheon has been supporting artists as an art fabricator (Ignition Arts) on a small scale while maintaining his own studio practice since graduating from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1995. In 2004, shortly before moving to Indianapolis with spouse Donna Sink (MArch Architecture 1995), he had his first opportunity to produce a public artwork. He continued to assist artists from the East Coast and also consulted with the Indianapolis Museum of Art on their commissioned installations.
His fabrication business, Ignition Arts, continued to expand and currently has a full-time staff of twenty. Ignition Arts is a custom fabrication studio specializing in the production of large-scale public artworks across the US, working with artists across the globe.
Describing the studio’s capacity, McCutcheon said, “We manage the process from concept to installation, contracting, project management, engineering, fabrication, and even assist artists we work with in RFQ and shortlist submissions. We are particularly good at translating computationally derived models and utilizing both computer-aided and traditional fabrication methods to bring these designs into being. We offer in-house Fiber Laser cutting, CNC router, and CNC press brake operations and are a one-stop art fabrication source.”
Sculptural seating & screens for IAAM Grounds, Charleston, SC, USA. Steel, reclaimed hardwoods, Variable, Installed 2023. Design: Hood Design Studio. Project Management, Design Development, Fabrication, Installation: Ignition Arts.
Ignition Arts’ past projects include a site-specific seating installation for Hood Design Studio and the new International African American Museum in Charleston, SC; “A Subtle Trip” by Rob Ley for the WMATA Potomac Yard Metro Station in Alexandria, VA; “Drift” in Ft Worth TX by Volkan Alkanoglu, founder of VA/Design and Senior Director of NXT Digital Creation Studio at Nike Innovation. They are currently in progress on two projects with gt2p, a public art, architecture, and collectible design studio based in Santiago, Chile; the first installation will be in San Diego, CA.
McCutcheon is also currently at work on a personal art commission with a recent Academy alum, to be announced.
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