Catalytic Conversation with Mary McInnes

UO Campus, October 11, 2019

CFAR’s Catalytic Conversations serve the practices of visiting artists, writers, designers and curators by giving them an opportunity to engage a group of thinkers in ways that contribute to a project in progress. Mary McInnes, curator and art historian working with contemporary sculpture, craft, and craft-based practices, engaged a Catalytic Conversation on notions of “skill” and “virtuosity” with a group of artists from the University of Oregon community of faculty, staff, and students. Mary talked through some open questions she has about this topic and some related projects she has in the works, and then led the group through a discussion intended to atomize, advance, or elucidate the things she has been thinking about. After participating in this conversation, Mary gave a talk in Portland at the International Sculpture Conference (ISC) entitled “Encountering Sculpture in the Digital Age”

 

Mary McInnes is a Professor of Art History with a focus on modern and contemporary sculpture in the School of Art and Design at the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University. Over the past decade, she has broadened her research and pedagogical interests to embrace the specific realm of glass and ceramic art as well as the broader discourse in craft practice. She has contributed to exhibition catalogs and journals, oral histories projects, and conference panels in a range of national and international capacities. Some of Mary’s recent work has been circulated in publications such as The Glass Reader, Itinerant Edens: A Theory of Everything, and Beyond Reflection: The Art of Li Hongwei.

Image:  Josiah McElheny, Modernit circa 1952, Photo by Ton Van Eynde