“Breadboard” from 1972 is one of Macaulay’s favorites. It was included in the All Ohio Painting and Sculpture Invitational at the Dayton Art Institute in 1974. It is a whimsical sculpture incorporating cutouts of individual bread slices, with the pieces coming together again in a whole loaf.
“It came together so easily. I found the plywood board in an alley. I traced a loaf of bread, and cut it out,” Macaulay said. “Then I cut the shelf and brackets to hold them. There was nothing forced about it.”
Another work viewers will find interesting is 1970’s “Toothpaste.” Macaulay used 14 tubes of it in various stages of depletion. Each one has product used as paint, and if you look closely enough, you can see the name “Macaulay” written in gold paste. Macaulay contends it wasn’t by design.
As a whole, the works in these exhibitions reflect Macaulay’s career-long interest in geometric form and appropriated objects. He is showing a Box Series, a site-specific installation using brown and white cardboard containers as sculptural material. The works encourage viewers to move through and around them.
Macaulay has also worked in the visual art forms of drawing, printing, multiples, photography, video, visual performance and outdoor environment. Solo shows of his work include: Artemisia in Chicago and P.S.1 in NYC; commercial galleries, such as OK Harris and Twining, both in NYC; university galleries, including Harvard University; and museums, such as The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu and The Southern Ohio Museum.
Back in 1990, the University of Delaware flew him out for a gallery talk for his show. Neither he nor the gallery coordinator were football fans.
“The opening was scheduled on a Sunday afternoon in late January. We didn’t realize it was Super Bowl Sunday. We had maybe two or three people come in that day,” remembers Macaulay.
Now a little more than two decades later, he’s ready to retire this year. He’s been teaching sculpture at Wright State University for the past 38 years.
“Working in an educational environment keeps you stimulated. I’ve really enjoyed working with the students all these years,” Macaulay said. “I help them find their way, and in return teaching keeps me thinking about my own work.”
Macaulay will continue creating art, especially in outdoor environments when he and his wife Ardis move to Costa Rica in a few years. They will be living in a sustainable community there.
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