Education

2014-19      Ph.D. (Practice-led Research in Sculpture), School of Art and Design, Australian National University.

1993-95     Master of Creative Arts (Sculpture), University of Wollongong, Australia.

1986-87     Associate Diploma Visual Arts (Design in Wood), Canberra School of Art, Australian National University.

1975-79     Bachelor of Science (Honors in Botany), University of New South Wales, Sydney.

 

Employment

2008- Professor, California College of the Arts, San Francisco.

1997-09     Chair of the Furniture Program, California College of the Arts, San Francisco.

1997-07     Associate Professor, California College of the Arts, San Francisco.

1994-96     Head of Furniture Design, Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre, Adelaide, Australia.

1988-94     Self-employed furniture designer and maker, Australia.

1983-86     Freelance botanical researcher and illustrator. Clients included the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra and CSIRO, Canberra.

1979-82      Botanical researcher and illustrator. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Australia..

 

Honors, Grants, Awards and Fellowships

2019 Materials-Based Research Grant, Center for Craft, Creativity and Design.

2017 Emerging Artists Support Scheme (EASS) Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Patrons Awards, Australian National University.

2016-17 Antarctic Artists and Writers Fellow, U.S. National Science Foundation.

2016 Graduate Harris Hobbs Award, Australian National University.

2014-17 Australian Postgraduate Award, Australian National University.

2014-17 Research Fellow, Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art.

2006    Inaugural Education Fellow, For-Site Foundation, San Francisco.

2002    Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award.

2001     SECA Experimental Design Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

1999     Professional development grant, Visual Arts and Crafts Fund of the Australia Council.

1994     Professional development grant, ACT Arts and Special Events, Canberra, Australia.

1993     Australia Council residency, Green Street Studios, New York.

1990    Traveling grant, Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra, Australia.

            Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship, Canberra, Australia.

1987    Craft training grant, Visual Arts and Craft Board of the Australia Council.

 

Public Collections

United States

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Museum of Art and Design, New York.

Museum of Fine Art, Houston.

Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada.

Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Alameda County Arts Commission.

Australia

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong.

 

Solo Exhibitions

2021 Signal/Noise, Aggregate Space Gallery, Oakland, California.

2019 Noise/Signal, School of Art and Design Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

2014     Pareidolia. Vessel Gallery, Oakland, California.

2013     Artifact and Translation. Foyer Gallery, School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra Australia.

2011      aWay station. Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin, California.

2009    Genius Loci. Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, California.

2003    Permutations. John Elder Gallery, New York.

2001    Experimental Design Award. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

            Correspondence. Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, Australia.

            Empty Vessels. John Elder Gallery, New York.

1995    aGROUND. Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre, Adelaide; Canberra Contemporary Art Space; and Wollongong City Gallery, Australia.

 

Group Exhibitions

United States

2022-3 Material Reasoning. Bresler Family Gallery, The Center for Craft, Asheville, North Carolina.

2022 Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things. Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC.

2018     Artifacts: Allied Craftsmen of San Diego. Oceanside Museum of Art, San Diego, CA.

2017     Bartram's Boxes Remix. Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA.

2016     Bartram's Boxes Remix.  Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA.

2015     Objects from the permanent collection of Decorative Arts & Design, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.

             Bartram's Boxes Remix. Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin and The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts, Highlands, North Carolina.

             Expanding Dimensions: CCA 2015 Faculty Exhibition. Oliver Art Center, Oakland.

2014     Re:Collection. Museum of Art and Design, New York.

             Bartram's Boxes Remix. Center for Art in Wood. Philadelphia.

2013     Landscape: Near and Afar. Vessel Gallery, Oakland, California.

             Origins: Elemental Forms in Contemporary Sculpture. Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California.

2012     Almost out of the Woods. Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco.

             CCA Faculty Exhibition, Oliver Arts Center, Oakland.

             Vessel 8: Charting the Waters. Vessel Gallery, Oakland.

             Where are you going, Where have you been? The Lewis Gallery at the Portland Public Library, Portland, Maine.

             The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft. Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock.

2011     The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft. Asheville Museum, North Carolina.

             traces. threads. surfaces. aMuse Gallery, San Francisco.

            The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft. Milwaukee Art Museum.

             Breaking Ranks: Human/Nature. Headlands Center for the Arts.

             Family Tree – Fine Woodworking in Northern California. Petaluma Art Center.

2010     The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft. Fuller Museum of Craft, Boston.

2008     Permanently MAD: Revealing the Collection, Museum of Arts and Design, New York.

              Bay Area Now 5, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.

2007     Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

              CCA at 100: Innovation by Design, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

              CCA Sculpture Selections, Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco.

2006     The Sensuous Curve, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco.

2005     Convergence, Oceanside Museum of Art, San Diego; San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design; and SOFA, Chicago.

              Metaphor and Magnitude. Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

2002     . . . and Extreme Pattern, John Elder Gallery, New York.

             Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Foundation, Groot Foundation Space, Chicago.

2001     SOFA (Sculpture, Objects, and Functional Art), Armory, New York.

2000     Form Follows, Design Gallery, University of California, Davis.

1998      lights-ON, John Elder Gallery, New York.

             SOFA (Sculpture, Objects, and Functional Art), Navy Pier, Chicago.

1997     Design Australia: Westweek 1997, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles.

1994–6    SOFA (Sculpture, Objects, and Functional Art), Navy Pier, Chicago.

International

2022 “Axis Mundi” screening at the Dutch Polar Symposium, Omniversum, The Hague, Netherlands. May 19, 2022.

2012     Opið Hús, Bær Art Center, Iceland.

1998     The Somatic Object, Dr. Earl Lu Gallery, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore.

1997     The Somatic Object, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan.

1994     Art of the Object (Craft Australia touring exhibition of South America), Montevideo; São Paulo; and Santiago.

Australia

2022 Axis Mundi screening at the Australian Antarctic Festival. Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Hobart, Australia.

2017 Rubies, School of Art and Design Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

2007    Integration: The Nature of Objects, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney.

2005   Transformations: The Language of Craft, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

1997     The Somatic Object, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney.

1996     New Furniture, Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre, Adelaide.

            South Australia: Crucible of Design, Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre, Adelaide.

1991–2   The Light Fantastic, Canberra Contemporary Art Space; Distelfink Gallery, Melbourne; and Sturt Craft Centre Gallery, Mittagong.

Professional Experience

2024 Artist in residence. Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness, California.

2022 Winter Residency. The Crayshack, Killiecrankie Bay, Flinders Island, Tasmania, Australia.

2021 Artist in residence. KM3NeT, Paris, Marseilles and the Mediterranean Sea.

2020 ANTARES and KM3NeT Collaboration Meeting. Participant and presenter.

REINFORCE Data sonification workshop. Participant and presenter.

2018     Invited artist, World Word Day 2018, Phnom Penh and Siem Riep, Cambodia.

2016-17  Artist in residence. IceCube Neutrino Observatory, South Pole, Antarctica.

2014      Artist in residence. Arctic Circle Residency, Svalbard Archipelago, Arctic Circle.

2013      Artist in residence. School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

2012      Artist in residence. Bær Art Center, Iceland.

2011      Artist in residence. Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin, CA.

2009    Artist in residence. College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, Sydney.

             Artist in residence. School of Art, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.

2006    Artist in residence. Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado.

2001     Artist in residence. School of Art, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.

1995-6  Artist in residence. Australia Council Studio, Greene Street, New York.

1991     Winston Churchill Fellowship. Research in Japan and the United Kingdom.

 Recent Published Writing (reverse chronological)

“Tracing the Sun at the South Pole”. Antarktikos #2, 2024.

“Art and Astrophysics in Conversation with KM3NeT Deep in the Mediterranean Sea,” Proceedings of the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023), 26 July - 3 August, 2023. Nagoya, Japan.

"Mapping the Invisible - An Artist’s Engagement with Subatomic Particles at the South Pole," Antarktikos #1, 2022.

“Synergy between Art and Science: Collaboration at the South Pole,” Proceedings of the 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2019), July 24th - August 1st, 2019. Madison, WI, U.S.A.

"At the Edge of the Natural: Scientific and Artistic Research at the South Pole," Unnaturalism issue, Art+Australia, 5.2018.

Bibliography (reverse chronological)

Rebecca Elliot. Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things, Giles, 2022

Adele Jackson. “A changing cultural climate: Realising the value of artists working in Antarctica.” Polar Record, 1-7. September 2019. doi:10.1017/S0032247419000470

Gina Fairley. "Call of the World: Extreme Artist Residencies." Artshub online, February 2018

Benjamin Austin. "Donald Fortescue: Arctic Visions.” Glance. Spring 2015

Judson Randall, Ed. Bartram’s Boxes Remix. Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA. 2014 : 82-87.

Kate Smith. "Exhibition Review: The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft," The Journal of Modern Craft, vol. 4, issue 3, 2011

John Lavine. “Donald Fortescue: Crafting a Sense of Place,” Woodwork, no. 111, 2008

Stacy Martin. “Doing It Naturally,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, July 16–22, 2008

Maria Porges. “The Sensuous Curve,” American Craft vol. 66, no. 5, 2006: 74–75

Stephen Hogbin. “Aspects of Structure,” Woodwork, no 61, August 2003

Glenn Adamson. “Donald Fortescue,” American Craft vol. 61, no. 3, 2001: 56–59

John Kelsey and Rick Mastelli, eds. Furniture Studio: The Heart of the Functional Arts, Furniture Society, 1999: 30

Sue Rowley, Ed. Craft and Contemporary Theory, Allen and Unwin, 1997

Norris Ioannou. Masters of Their Craft, Craftsman House, 1997

Jenny Zimmer, Ed. Contemporary Craft Review 1: Collected Essays on Issues and Themes in Contemporary Craft, Craft Victoria, 1996: 21–23

Christopher Fortescue. “aGround: A Review,” Object vol. 2, no. 95, 1995: 17–18

Anne Outlaw. “Re:furnishing Memory,” Broadsheet vol. 24, no. 3, 1995: 23

Grace Cochrane. The Crafts Movement in Australia: A History, UNSW Press, 1992: 399–400

Ken Lockwood, Ed. Artfile, Craft Arts International, 1992: 290–91

Richard Raffan. “Design for Living,” Craft Arts no. 19, July–September, 1990: 64–66