A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

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Markus Dohner

Lecturer

Contact

Bio

Education: BFA, 1978, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas; MA, 1979, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana;.MFA, 1982, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Teaching: Lecturer, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Contemporary Practices department, Adjunct Instructor, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design department, Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC. Publications: Print Magazine, Casebooks: the Best in Exhibition Design. Awards: 3 Arts grant; CAAP grant Chicago Cultural Affairs. 

Professional Practice: Since 2014, Markus Dohner Exhibition Design (owner, lead designer) contract exhibit design and planning for museums, libraries, and cultural venues. Past design clients: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University; National Public Housing Museum, Chicago; the Field Museum; the Brinton Museum, Big Horn, Wyoming; Chinese American Museum of Chicago; MCA Chicago. From 2000 to 2014 staff designer in a variety of Chicago museums and cultural institutions.

Personal Statement: I’m an artist-designer practicing exhibition design, a very exciting and expanding field. My practice is centered on museums and cultural venues. I follow a hybrid practice of combining art and design disciplines simultaneously. I move easily from two-dimensionally based art/design to three-dimensional projects that utilize time elements and physicality within a compendium of perspectives. Teaching at the college level takes me out of my comfort zone and exposes me to different modes of art-making, in the long run, it helps to improve my business model and professional practice.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This studio course focuses on themes, practices, contexts, and questions undertaken by contemporary artists and designers. Research Studio I is a course that asks students to begin to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities. This course engages with cultural institutions including: museums, galleries, libraries and archives as resources of critical engagement.

Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems.


Assignments in this course are faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary and idea based. The projects are designed to help students recognize their work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Students will experience a wide range of research methods and making strategies. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

Class Number

1341

Credits

3

Description

In this course we will focus on the development of artistic research skills for students already engaged in a practice. Students take this required course in order to experience and develop a variety of research methodologies, both conventional and alternative, which include utilizing collections and archives in the School and the extended community.

Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems.

Faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary, idea based assignments are designed to help students recognize work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Through this course work students will be able to identify the most productive research methods and making strategies to bolster their emerging studio practice. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

Class Number

1255

Credits

3

Description

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? Sophomore Seminar offers strategies for students to explore, reflect upon, and connect common themes and interests in the development of an emerging creative practice that will serve as the basis of their ongoing studies at SAIC and beyond. Students will examine historical and contemporary influences and contextualize their work in relation to the diverse art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary each semester. Presentations by visiting artists and guest speakers will provide the opportunity for students to hear unique perspectives on sustaining a creative practice. One-on-one meetings with faculty will provide students with individualized mentorship throughout the semester. During interdisciplinary critiques, students will explore a variety of formats and tools to analyze work and provide peer feedback. The class mid-term project asks students to imagine a plan for their creative life and devise a self-directed course of study for their time at school. The course concludes with an assignment asking students to develop and document a project or body of work demonstrating how the interplay of ideas, technical skills, and formal concerns evolve through iteration, experimentation and revision.

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore to enroll.

Class Number

2158

Credits

3