Directory

Wade Folger MacDonald was appointed assistant professor of art in The University of Alabama’s department of art and art history in 2019. MacDonald has been an instructor of ceramics and studio foundations courses in the department since 2015. A Nashville native, he received the BA in art education from Western Michigan University and the MFA in studio art with a concentration in ceramics from Michigan State University.

As a ceramic sculptor, MacDonald explores the intersection of ceramics, digital fabrication, furniture design and architecture. He and his work have been profiled in American Craft Magazine (August/September 2018) and in 2018, he received the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Emerging Artist Award. The award recognizes exceptional early career artists and helps promote their work internationally for the year.

MacDonald has exhibited nationally including juried exhibitions at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, Wis.; Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio; Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Clay Center of New Orleans and the NCECA Emerging Artists Exhibition, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh. MacDonald has participated in invitational exhibitions at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia; Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, Ga. and numerous others. He had a solo exhibition at the University of Montevallo, Montevallo, Ala. and was included in Dirt X Digital Ceramics Invitational, at Lee Gallery, Clemson University in South Carolina.

In this 2021 video by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, MacDonald and his wife, MFA alumna and artist Anne Herbert, now faculty at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, talk about their artwork, in a gallery “walk and talk.”

MacDonald has held artist residencies at Anderson Ranch Art Center, in Snowmass, Colo.; Banff Centre, in Banff, Alberta; and the Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Mt. He has been a visiting artist at the Department of Art and Art History with the Department of Architecture at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and at the Department of Craft and Material Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University. MacDonald received the Stanley and Selma Hollander Graduate Fellowship in Studio Art, the Varg-Sullivan Award for Distinguished Research and the John and Susan Berding Family Foundation Endowment Juried MFA Prize. He has given numerous artist lectures, talks, workshops and demonstrations including the NCECA Emerging Artist Lecture in Pittsburgh; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Mich. and the Bunting Biennial Ceramics Symposium, Birmingham Museum of Art, in Alabama.

Recent & Forthcoming Exhibitions

2022

• 30th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National at the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Museum of Art (juried), September 17—November 5
• Lethal Lounge, at Ejecta Projects in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (solo), September 23—November 3
• artist residency, Zentrum für Keramik, Berlin, Germany, May
• Say Something: Tactile Voices in Clay, Saratoga Clay Arts Center, Schuylerville, New York (juried)
• 24th San Angelo Museum of Art National Ceramics Competition, San Angelo, Texas (juried)
• Lethal Lounge, Eichold Gallery, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama (solo), February and March

2021

• A Taste of Home National Juried Cup Exhibition, Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY, September 1 – October 3
• Clay+, Clay Center of New Orleans, August 6 – September 18 (proposer and juror)
• Cheers! Drink Up! International Juried Drinking Vessel Exhibition, Common Wheel Artists Co-op, Manitou Springs, Colorado, July 2 – August 1
• Eden: Wade Folger MacDonald, Biggin Gallery, Auburn University, Auburn, Ala. (solo)
• Geaux Cups International Juried Exhibition, Clay Center of New Orleans – June 4 – July 24
• Vase, Alma’s RVA, Richmond, Virginia (juried)
• Small Favors XVI, The Clay Studio of Philadelphia, juried by Kensuke Yamada

2020

• Southern Mississippi Ceramics National, University of Southern Mississippi, juror: Richard Notkin
• Utility, Moon Gallery, Berry College, juror: Heather Mae Erickson
• 28th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National (SFPN) (juried): Award for Slip Casting
• 10th Annual Clay International, Workhouse Art Center, Lorton, Va. (juried)
• The Clay Studio National 2020, Philadelphia, Penn. (juried)
• ETERNAL, Wade F. MacDonald and Jason Hackett, Shockoe Art Space, NCECA Conference, Richmond, Va. (two-person)

2019

• Presentation: “Convention v Invention: Digital Approaches, Inter- and Post-disciplinary Movements in Ceramics,” SECAC, Chattanooga, Tenn.
• The Cup, The Mug, Mainstreet Arts, Clifton Springs, N.Y. (juried)
• LUSH: A Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition, Lighthouse ArtCenter, Palm Beach, Fla. (juried)
• Shadowtime, Bloch Hall Gallery, Department of Art, University of Montevallo, Montevallo, Ala. (solo exhibition)
• Dirt X Digital Ceramics Invitational, Lee Gallery, Clemson University, Clemson, S.C. (group invitational)
• Faculty Biennial, Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala. (group invitational)
• Mentor/Mentee Exhibition, Alabama Clay Conference, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Ala. (group invitational)

  

• Small Favors, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Penn. (group invitational)
• 32nd Annual Materials: Hard & Soft, International Craft Competition and Exhibition, Juror: Janet McCall, Patterson-Appleton Arts Center, Denton, Texas (juried)

2018

• Sculpted and Small, Juror: William DePauw, Clay Center of New Orleans, New Orleans, La. (juried)
• Workhouse Clay International, Juror: Eva Kwong, Workhouse Art Center, Lorton, Va. (juried, second place award)
• Small Favors, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Penn. (group invitational)
• NCECA Emerging Artists Exhibition, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Penn. (group invitational)
• Parallel/Collision (Organizer) NCECA Conference, Pittsburgh, Penn.
• Mentor/Mentee Exhibition, Alabama Clay Conference, Montgomery, Ala. (group invitational)
• TACTIC III, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, Ga. (group invitational)