Ceramic Work by Malcolm Mobutu Smith

Touch and Circumstance

September 28 - October 26, 2006

  • Reception: October 5, 6-8 p.m., gallery lounge

Malcolm Mobutu Smith is an assistant professor of ceramics at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He taught under the same title at Western Kentucky University from 1996 to 2001. Prior to this, Smith earned his master’s degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and attended both the Kansas City Art Institute and Penn State University, where he subsequently earned his BFA in 1994.

Smith’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions including: “Well Beyond The Crossroads-Contemporary Black Art" at Concord College; Diversity in Unity Invitational – Baltimore Clayworks; “Recent Works” at the Tuska Gallery, University of Kentucky; the Image Friedman Gallery Clay exhibition in Louisville; “Soul Power” at Indiana University Southwest; “Symposium in Clay” at Owensboro Museum; “No Problems No Solutions” at Slippery Rock University; and currently, a traveling show, “Shades of Clay,” curated by Paul Wandless and organized by Smith/Kramer. This show is traveling to numerous museums between 2005- 2007. Smith was also featured in Ceramics Art and Perceptions.

His studio interests include both ceramics and drawing. His clay work is inspired in equal part by archetypal vessel forms, the varied intersections of line and form, letterform, graffiti, and jazz. In addition, he pulls from traditional sources of the figure and landscape. His current bodies of work are following a theme he calls Rigmarole involving cup-like vessels that play with graphic cloud images, graffiti, and his African American spirit.