MICHIGAN STATE ALUMNUS MAKES WAVES IN ART WORLD

Wade MacDonald's artistic vision is expressed through his three-dimensional artworks, which are receiving accolades on the international art scene. He earned an MFA degree from Michigan State University's College of Arts and Letters last year.

This past fall, he worked as the BANFF Centre Artist in Residence, in Canada. In the coming weeks, he will participate in the Anderson Ranch Artist in Residence program, in CO.

Look for his work this summer in three international exhibitions: The Workhouse Clay National in Lorton, VA; the National MFA Competition at First Street Gallery in New York, NY; and the National MFA Exhibition at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH.

He wrote about his muses for the 2014 Art Prize, an international competition hosted annually in Grand Rapids.

"I traveled to Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic, developing my cultural competency, global awareness, and enthusiasm for art and design. I have since traveled to European countries five times and completed a research trip to the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, the Bauhaus in Dessau, the Meissen Porcelain Factory in Meissen, and the Meissen Porcelain Museum in Dresden, during the summer of 2012.

"International travel is the vehicle that has expanded my artistic vision and provides perspective to question current cultural and societal systems. Music continues to surreptitiously inform my creative research. My parents were opera singers and as a child, music filled the air of our home and art covered the walls.

"Appropriately, my wife of 13 years is an orchestral musician leading the viola section of West Michigan Symphony in Muskegon, and playing in the Grand Rapids Symphony. Exposure to symphonic music both contemporary and classical, as well as that provided by the expanded field of the performing arts, is integral for my artistic growth and conceptual ideation."

For a look at MacDonald's works, watch this video produced by his college.