Malcolm Cochran found his voice as an artist far from the centers of the art world in his home state of New Hampshire, to which he returned after completing an MFA in ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Working in a solitary studio outfitted in a barn, he soon realized that he couldn’t express himself exclusively in clay. In a significant shift of scale and materials, he began constructing room-sized environments from wood and salvaged building materials. In hindsight, this became a de facto decision to have no primary medium or form, and his creative practice has evolved organically ever since. His most recent project, Requiem, incorporates vocal performance for the first time in an installation, and it has fueled a new, fertile direction in the work.
Cochran’s public projects develop in response to a particular place or location; gallery works originate from personal circumstances and in response to world events. Strong threads run through his work: the importance of place and a strongly implied human presence are central to many of the pieces, and the works often imply narrative possibilities. In this context, one reviewer commented, “I have had the pleasure of seeing firsthand the vision, craft, and intellectual rigor of Malcolm Cochran’s work. His sense of material investigation, combined with his relentless exploration of what it means to be human.”
Cochran’s projects and exhibitions include works at Artpark, Lewiston, NY; P.S. 1 and Socrates Sculpture Park, NYC; Wexner Center and Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus; Contemporary Art Center and Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati; Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art; Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia; Retretti Art Center, Finland; and Het Stroomhuis, The Netherlands. His permanent public commissions are in Brattleboro, VT; Cleveland, Columbus, and Dublin, OH; and in the Hudson River Park, NYC. Cochran is the recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bellagio Center Residency Award of the Rockefeller Foundation, Awards in the Visual Arts 9, Art Matters, the Ohio Arts Council, and Greater Columbus Arts Council. In 2017 he was the recipient of the Educator of the Year Award from the International Sculpture Center.
Malcolm Cochran lives and works in Columbus, OH. From 1987 to 2013, he was on the sculpture faculty at The Ohio State University. As Director and Curator, he was the driving force for Finding Time: Columbus Public Art 2012, a program of 14 temporary public projects in the central city by 49 international, national, and local artists organized in conjunction with the bicentennial of Columbus. In 2017 Cochran bought a former electrical contracting complex that he has converted for his studio and living, and from which he plans never to move.
contactmalcolmcochran@gmail.