Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 10 am –Sat, Nov 4, 2023, 6 pm Main Gallery Gallery Exhibition Image Opening reception (in conjunction with Young, Gifted, and Black), Friday, September 8, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Excursion: Community Offering Event, Friday, November 3, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Recipient of the 2022 McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist Award, composer, musician, educator, visual artist, craftsman, inventor, activist, and human, Douglas R. Ewart (b. 1946) presents Excursion: Visual and Sonic Galaxy. A retrospective of Ewart's drawings, paintings, collages, sonic sculptures, masks, sculptures, musical instruments, and more, showcases four decades of his multidisciplinary and polymathic practice. Ewart describes his art as “a confluence of indivisible practices. Each discipline aids and acts as a catalyst for the others, with music as the overarching and galvanizing agent.” Utilizing conventional and experimental approaches to actualize his work, his ongoing practice serves as a communion of self, and the development of expression across time, history, and the community. “As a community-supported artist, I feel that it is incumbent upon me to aspire to be a beacon and drum major for spiritual, cultural, social, and political change and development. I conceptualize my responsibilities in society from this viewpoint as I strive to balance artistic integrity and social responsibility. For me, this balance is achieved through the stimuli of novel sound, visual arts techniques, language, materials, techniques, technologies, movement, and fresh costumes that nevertheless anchor themselves in many traditions.” His work blurs the boundaries of artistic disciplines creating what Ewart describes as “a conscious recognition of the correlation between our treatment of art practices, and the way we engage in and embrace planetary views that foster global progress and development.” With work nurtured by history, humanity, legacy, and the community, Excursion offers an exploration of unfamiliar territory, the stories we share, and the experiences we encounter. “I want to magnify the links and the overlaps of play and work, laughter and seriousness, esoteric and generic, ethereal and earthy, mythology and pragmatism, gravity and levitation, meditation and concentration, the fine lines between child and adult, imagination and realism.” Douglas R. Ewart, photographed by Molly Miles About Douglas R. Ewart Douglas R. Ewart, Professor Emeritus at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1946. His life and his wide-ranging work have always been inextricably associated with Jamaican culture, history, politics, and the land itself. Ewart immigrated to Chicago in 1963, where he studied music theory at VanderCook College of Music, electronic music at Governors State University, and composition at the School of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Known as a master multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, Ewart is also widely recognized as an instrument maker, sound sculptor, painter, writer, and teacher. His renowned interdisciplinary work includes performance on a vast range of saxophones, flutes, woodwinds, and percussion instruments of his own design and construction. Ewart’s work as a composer, instrument maker, and visual artist has long reflected his understanding of the importance of sustainable and natural materials. Bamboo, in particular, serves not only as a primary physical material for many of his sculptures and instruments but also as a crucial conceptual element of some of his most important recordings. Among his many honors, Ewart received the 2022 McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist Award, the Jamaica Musgrave Silver Medal for Outstanding Merit in the Arts, Education, and Culture 2019, and Chicago’s Outstanding Artist Award. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and others. Learn More Douglas R. Ewart Gallery Visitor Information The MCAD Gallery is open to the public during the following hours: Monday–Friday 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Saturday 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. All visitors must enter through the north (main) entrance, sign in at the welcome desk in the main lobby, and stay in designated areas. For more information or any disability accommodations, please contact MCAD Gallery staff at 612.874.3367 or gallery@mcad.edu. Transportation and Parking Find out how to find us and where to park.