About
Morgan MacDonald is a Newfoundland artist whose work is known throughout Canada. His talent is showcased in four high profiled public sculptures in Newfoundland. His vision and sensitivity to Newfoundland’s history and culture is evident in the great pride he took in completing his first public commission, ‘The Rower’ at the start line of the Royal St. John’s Regatta on Quidi Vidi Lake. He followed that with ‘A Time’ on the legendary George Street strip paying homage to St. John’s as the Cultural Capital of Canada in 2006.
His artistic education has taken him through many bronze art foundries across the country, including time at Artcast and formal fine art education at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College. He has also spent time as a sculptor’s apprentice working on a number of large monumental pieces as public monuments.
Now owning and operating his own in house foundry in January 2009 he led the Newfoundland Bronze Foundry to the fields of Beaumont-Hamel, France when he was commissioned to replicate the bronze tablets listing the names of the men who served and died in Newfoundland’s Forces and have ‘no known graves’. Morgan also co-authored a book about these men with Frank Gogos using his artistic talents to produce a special commemorative book of remembrance ‘Known unto God’.
Morgan is currently working on the last phase of the Conception Bay South Monument of Honour statues. The project consists of a group of six statues and bas relief work, a large undertaking it will be the center piece of the Town of Conception Bay South. The monument and memorial is erected on a scale and scope rivaling any elsewhere. On Nov 11th 2010 two life sized statues were unveiled in Conception Bay South dedicated to the armed forces and veterans who have served. These statues are part of a larger vision of having an entire park dedicated to the heroes of the community. The final phase which Morgan is completing now includes four bronze statues depicting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, The Canadian Peacekeepers and the Conception Bay South Firefighters.
Morgan MacDonald’s work encompasses a passion for Newfoundland and it’s storied past through realist figurative bronze work. It is a retelling of it’s people, past and culture. His work means to capture the imagination and revive a history lost in an ever changing modern world and strives to forge a new path of understanding our own identity through its creation.
“The Rower, at its very core, a monument to dreams and to human potential.”
Espace Sculpture Magazine