Purchase College Graduate's Large-Scale Sculpture Takes a Leap into Manhattan's Art World

June 14, 2012 - PRLog -- Purchase College graduate Malcolm D. MacDougall III's Microscopic Landscape 2010, is moving from "greener pastures" to the bright lights of New York City. The sculpture, Microscopic Landscape, which graced the entrance to Purchase College, SUNY for over a year, is now relocating to the Union Square Park Triangle where it will be in the illustrious company of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Ghandi, whose sculptural likenesses inhabit the vibrant city park. The 24-foot-long by 11-foot-tall sculpture will be on view for six months, from June 14, 2012 through January, 2013.

The installation is made possible by the Union Square Partnership and the City of New York's Department of Parks & Recreation Art in the Parks program. This is the first New York City exhibition for the 22-year-old artist, whose work is currently featured in several sculpture shows in New York State including one at the Wilderstein Estate in Rhinebeck.

MacDougall, who grew up in Ardsley, NY, attended Purchase’s School of Art+Design. While there, he received the college's first President’s Award for Student Public Art on Campus.

MacDougall has produced a number of large-scale works that play off organic and inorganic metaphors. “My art stems from a fascination with the natural sciences.  In particular, I am drawn to microscopy, the method of using microscopes to view objects that cannot be seen by the unaided eye,” he says. Snapshots of bacteria and cellular platelets retrieved by this method are a metaphor for his sculptures. Although stagnate, they remain imbued with the sense that the forms and surfaces will continue to undulate and recalibrate as time passes.

On a macro level, MacDougall draws from geological processes, such as the dynamic effects of plate tectonics and erosion on the landscape.  Microscopic Landscape indeed reflects the artist’s fascination with these micro and macro views of nature. "This sculpture is about potential energy and pushing a stagnant object as close to perceived movement as possible,” he says.

MacDougall’s work is hailed by academics and art critics alike.  In praising him, Professor Phil Listengart, a sculptor and faculty member in the School of Art+Design, says, “He is a mature, poetic artist." Although he may seem shy, his mentor assures, "Behind that exterior is a powerhouse."

Microscopic Landscape was seen by more than 4,000 visitors and students before it was de-installed from the lawn at Purchase on March 23. It has been in MacDougall’s Dobbs Ferry studio, a former airplane hangar on the Hudson River, where it was fitted onto an engineered platform designed for the Union Square Park location before being transported to Manhattan. Union Square Triangle is located at Broadway and Park Avenue South between 14th and 15th streets in Manhattan.

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspirations for Purchase were to combine on one campus conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences. Today, Purchase College, SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu.

Purchase College's School of Art+Design offers one of the most preeminent undergraduate BFA programs in the country for students pursuing studies in graphic design, painting and drawing, photography, printmaking or sculpture. The world-class Neuberger Museum of Art, located on campus, is the 10th largest university museum in the country. and the 60,000-square-foot Visual Arts Building is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the 
Northeast, providing students with superb studio environments, as well as 
state-of-the-art software and hardware specifically geared to the demands of professional design and art making. In addition to the vibrant artist community on campus, the college's proximity to
New York City gives students access to world-class artists, museums, galleries and other artistic venues.