Statement | Mac Collins

Info@maccollins.com
@maccollins__
Bio/CV

Forgotten Moves 2024

Premier League Dominoes 2024

Runout 2023

Uncoded 2023

Collective Instinct 2023
Boneyard 2022
168 Eyes 2022
Open Code 2022

Sentinel 2022
Tenroy (Thaneray) 2022
Concur 2021

Jupiter 2021
Travelled (Weary) 2019

Spearhead 2019

Iklwa 2018

Mac Collins is a British visual artist based in Nottingham, UK. Mac creates objects, sculpture, and installation from rudimentary materials such as wood, welded steel, cast aluminium, and cast glass. Having entered the field of contemporary visual arts with a design education, Mac approaches the creation of sculpture with an interest in materiality, tactility, and spatial understanding. Mac follows a human-centred, research-driven approach, engaging with communities and responding to the urban cultural rituals that he encounters. Conceptually, Mac’s work explores ideas of transnationalism, distorted memory, and contemporary urban mythology. Within his work, Mac has exploited the familiarity of recognisable furniture forms and the iconography of other domestic objects as a way of communicating his ideas. Alongside recognisable objects, Mac is now creating more abstract, allegorical, and ambitious work. Notably, Mac exhibited his first major abstract work, a 4-meter-tall sculpture titled Runout, in the British Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2023. Alongside the physical side of his practice, Mac engages in other academic and cultural pursuits including writing, public talks, and lecturing.

Mac Collins is the recipient of the Emerging Design Medal by the London Design Festival 2021 and the Ralph Saltzman Prize for the Emerging Designer of the Year 2022 which culminated in a solo exhibition at The London Design Museum. Recent group and solo exhibitions include Dancing Before the Moon, British Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2023, To Be Held at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate 2023, Global Tools at Side Gallery, Barcelona 2023, Open Code at Primary, Nottingham 2022, and The Harewood House Biennial: Radical Acts at Harewood House, Leeds 2022. Collins has work held in the permanent collections of institutions including the V&A Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Vitra Design Museum, and the Denver Museum of Art.

Exhibitions/Interventions

- Mac Collins & Premier League Dominoes, intervention, Julian Abraham ‘Togar’, Reꓘonciliation, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK – June 2024

- Take a Seat: Understanding the Modern Chair, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA – June – October 2024

- Black Star, Strada Gallery, New York, USA – May - June 2024

- By Design: Stories and Ideas Behind Objects, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA – May 2024 - May 2025

- Dancing Before the Moon, British Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2023, Venice, Italy – May - October 2023

- Open Studio, Young V&A, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, UK – June 2023 - March 2026

- Global Tools, Side Gallery, Barcelona, Spain – May - September 2023

- To Be Held, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, UK – April - June 2023

- Stems Gallery, NADA, Miami, USA – December 2022

- Mac Collins: Open Code – solo show – Primary, Nottingham, UK – August 2022

- Reimagining Aydon, Design Histories, Aydon Castle, Northumberland, UK – June 2022

- Radical Acts, Harewood House Biennial 2022, Harewood House, Leeds, UK – March – July 2022

- Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures, The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, UK – February 2022

- Mac Collins: The Ralph Saltzman Prize – solo show – The Design Museum, London, UK – February - April 2022

- Discovered: Designers for Tomorrow, The American Hardwood Export Council and Wallpaper*, The Design Museum, London, UK – September 2021

- Portrait of Place, The New Craftsmen Gallery, London, UK – September 2021

- Portrait of Place: Holkham Hall, Holkham Hall, Norfolk, UK – September 2021

- Maker's Eye, The Craft Council Gallery, London, UK – June - October 2021

- 300 Objects: An Inaugural Exhibition for Modern Day Patrons, London Craft Week, London, UK – October 2020

- Young Furniture Makers' Exhibition, The Furniture Makers' Hall, London, UK – October 2019

- New Designers, One Year In, The Business Design Centre, Islington, London, UK – July 2019

- Tools for Everyday Life, ICFF, Jacob K Javits Centre, New York, US – May 2019

- Young Furniture Makers' Exhibition, The Furniture Makers' Hall, London, UK – October 2018

- The British Craft Pavilion, London Design Fair, The Old Truman Brewery, London, UK – September 2018

Selected Talks/Workshops

- Public talk/workshop – Windrush Day, South London Gallery, London, UK – June 2024

- Public talk - Dey Play: In conversation: Mac Collins & Giles Tettey Narty, Open Dialogue, Moko, London, UK – February 2024

- Public talk - Barbican Encounters: In conversation: Mac Collins & Ronan McKenzie, The Barbican Centre, London, UK – November 2023

- Public talk - ACNE Paper Issue 18 Talks: In conversation, Mac Collins & Charlene Prempeh, Ladbroke Hall, London, UK – June 2023

- Guest lecture/workshop – Mac Collins: Workshop, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London, UK – April 2023

- Public talk - In conversation: Mac Collins & Alayo Akinkugbe & Monica Fernandez-Taranco, chaired by Charlene Prempeh and Lewis Dalton Gilbert, Bonhams Auction, London, UK – February 2023

- Public talk – In conversation: Mac Collins & Luis Sendino, Institución Libre de Enseñanza, Design Festival Madrid, Madrid, Spain – February 2023

- Public talk - Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures. In conversation: Johanna Agerman Ross & Mac Collins – Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, UK – March 2022

- Public talk – The Ralph Saltzman Prize: In conversation: Sam Hecht & Mac Collins – The Design Museum, London, UK – March 2022

- Radio – Extra: Mac Collins – Monocle Radio, London – January 2022
(Listen at: https://monocle.com/radio/shows/monocle-on-design/extra-277/)

- Podcast – American Cherry: Mac Collins – Tree Shorts, Words on Wood Podcast, Disegno Journal, London – January 2022

- Public talk – Talk: Mac Collins and Sofia Yala N’Lolo – 4UBU: Artist Residencies, the New Art Exchange Gallery, Nottingham – October 2021

- Guest lecture – Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham – October 2021

- Public talk – Mac Collins at Floor_Story. In conversation: Mac Collins, Natalie Melton – London Craft Week, Floor_Story, London – October 2021

- Lecture and panel discussion – Sustainability Day, London Design Festival. In conversation: Arthur Mamou-man, Sara Morel, Mac Collins, Peter Marigold - The Global Design Forum, the V&A Museum, London – September 2021

- Panel discussion – Discovered: Designers for Tomorrow. In conversation: Sarah Douglas, Mac Collins, Adam Markowitz, Ivana Taylor. Chaired by Stephen Todd. Collaborative event held between the Design Museum, London, and Sydney Powerhouse Museum, Sydney – September 2021. (Watch at: https://sydneydesign.maas.museum/live-stream/discovered-designers-for-tomorrow/)

- Design Can: Speed Mentoring, The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London – September 2021

- Public talk – In conversation: Ini Archibong and Mac Collins – The Pavilion of the African Diaspora, London Design Biennale, London – June 2021

- Panel discussion – Artefact: Conversations in Craft. In conversation: Annie Warburton, Mac Collins, Rachel Dickson. Chaired by Grant Gibson. – Artefact, Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, London – June 2021