David B. Smith Gallery

David McDonald’s abstract paintings and sculptures fuse the art of the readymade with assemblage, Minimalism, and Postminimalism. Composed of unremarkable materials such as raw and painted wood, bricks, paper, cement, and plaster, McDonald’s sculptures propose an aesthetic rooted in the organic and handmade. Frequent motifs in McDonald’s works include cubes, cylinders, and enamel-coated cement columns resembling tombstones, and their off-kilter compositions suggest a tension between order and chaos. Sometimes titled as self-portraits, McDonald’s abstract forms can be viewed as surrogates for the self.