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Malcolm Mobutu Smith is associate professor of ceramic art and director of graduate studies in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design at Indiana University-Bloomington. Smith’s undergraduate studies include both the Kansas City Art Institute and Penn State University where he earned his B.F.A. in Ceramics. He received his M.F.A. in Ceramics from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1996. He is a member of National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. He is on the boards of Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts and The Marks Project. Smith’s professional activities include workshops, lecturers and residencies including visits to Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Crafts, Peter’s Valley School of Craft and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. His works are represented by the Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia and are in numerous private and public collections. Institutions with his work include at the Indiana State Museum, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, the Palmer Museum of Art, the Eskenazi Museum and Yingge Ceramics Museum of New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Smith’s works, guided by improvisations, merge volumetric form with graphic flatness. His studio interests include ceramics and drawing. His clay work, both wheel-thrown and hand-built forms are used to play with the intersections of graffiti art, the graphic conventions of comic books and playful organic abstraction.