Ian McDonald Named Ceramics Artist-in-Residence at Cranbrook Academy of Art

Bloomfield Hills, Mich., February 23, 2017 – The Cranbrook Academy of Art Board of Governors and Christopher Scoates, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, announced today that Ian McDonald has been named the new Artist-in-Residence for the Academy’s Ceramics department. He will replace Anders Ruhwald, who is leaving at the end of the academic year. McDonald will begin his tenure in September of 2017.

McDonald comes to Cranbrook from Eugene, Oregon, where he most recently was teaching in the Ceramics Department at the University of Oregon. Prior to that appointment, he served as a member of the faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2003 – 2015.

“Ian has spent many years exploring a broad range of work with clay,” explains Scoates. “His work has ranged from traditional vessels to freeform sculpture and mixed-media installations. We feel this depth and variety of experience lends itself well to our collaborative environment at the Academy.”

Scoates continued, “The Academy is entering a new era, with several new Artists-in-Residence bringing contemporary ideas into our studios and sharing them with our students. It is through this practice that Cranbrook will continue to maintain its status as one of the top programs in the world.”

McDonald’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, including Play Mountain and the Curators Cube in Tokyo; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco; The New Wight Gallery at UCLA in Los Angeles; and Patrick Parrish Gallery in New York City. European venues include: Nieuwe Vide in Holland; Sophienholm Exhibition Hall in Copenhagen Denmark; and the Svendborg Kunstingbygning Museum in Svendborg Denmark.

He has completed residencies in Holland at the European Ceramic Workcenter, the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark and the de Young Museum in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. In 2007, he was awarded the “Premio Faenza” from the Museo Internazionale della Ceramiche in Faenza, Italy.

“The opportunity for me to serve as an Artist-in-Residence at Cranbrook is unique and exciting,” said McDonald. “I look forward to co-creating with our students, and showing them how to reinvent a Ceramics studio practice.”

His work has been featured in Artforum, Metropolis, Wallpaper magazine, Ceramics Monthly, Dwelland The New York Times.