Upcoming Exhibitions at MAM

Chip Clawson: Flow

January 16- April 10, 2026

Shott Gallery

Although known as a ceramist, Clawson is relentlessly innovative. For more than a decade, he worked with fabric formed concrete that had painted, mosaic, or other ceramic attachments as surface treatments, and is known for large-scale, site-specific works that sculptural columns and arches.

In his most recent work, Clawson uses digital technology to alter a base form through “distortion, segmenting, reconstruction, bending, changing scale and producing sculpture in a variety of materials with a variety of digitally controlled machines.” The work in this exhibition starts with a clay model or found objects that are then laser-scanned. The digital file is taken into a modeling program, manipulated in many ways, and used to produce a physical object using CNC routers or 3D printers. He finishes the form by painting them with bold, intense colors.

Clawson moved to Helena to be the Clay Business Manager in 1977 and worked there until he retired in 2017. He was close friends with Bray director David Shaner, who bequeathed him a collection of seed pods, shells and other natural forms that inspired Shaner’s ceramic forms and continue to inspire Clawson’s.

Clawson says, “The natural world is the main source of inspiration for my work. As I have spent time enjoying the outdoors, the forms accumulate in my brain and come in a new form as I fulfill my need to create. Sculpture gives me the opportunity to share my visions with others.” 

Richard Swanson: Rhythm and Whimsy

January 16- April 10, 2026

Silver Gallery

Helena sculptor and ceramist Richard Swanson has been making art since he came to Montana in 1974 for a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. His interest in large-scale sculptural materials led him back to graduate school at the University of Montana in 1994. Since then, he has created numerous public works and embarked on several notable collaborations with dancers and choreographers in museum, theatrical, and natural settings, including Amy Ragsdale, choreographer and art director of the Montana Transport Company.

This exhibition was organized by the Holter Museum of Art and is touring the state through the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association (MAGDA). Swanson began this series of small-scale metal sculptures in 2013 after a decade of creating monumental public sculpture. The intimate scale of this body of work offers a level of spontaneity difficult to achieve in larger works, reflecting a freer use of color, form, and line. In addition, the works embrace an improvisational approach that is as much about process and play as the final product. Swanson considers these sculptures visual poems whose colorful rhythms suggest a story or fragment of a dream. Swanson says, “Whether I am working abstractly or figuratively, on an intimate scale or monumental, I am constantly combining and simplifying to enhance the way forms relate and flow together. The interaction of rhythm and balance is a defining aesthetic for all my work.”

This exhibition has been supported by the Montana Arts Council, the Cultural and Aesthetic Projects Trust Fund; and the National Endowment for the Arts.