Bryan McFarlane “Circular Journey III”

Skoto Gallery

[Image: Bryan McFarlane "Night Rider II" (2008) 60x48 in.]

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Skoto Gallery present Circular Journey III, an exhibition of recent work by Jamaica-born artist Bryan McFarlane. This is his first solo show at the gallery.

Bryan McFarlane’s work continues his long-standing commitment to the exploration of color and form as means to expand the boundaries between art and consciousness. Over the past three decades, he has consistently remained true to an artistic vision that is firmly rooted in the fissure between the natural world and the world of the imagination. He draws on a synthesis of intellect and emotions to create work that simultaneously preserves an overall fluency, intensity and beauty. An astute observer of the world around him, he draws inspiration from his travels throughout China, East Asia, Turkey, West Africa, South America, Europe and the Caribbean as he seek to integrate his rich and varied cultural experience into a critical framework that quietly and powerfully address issues of history, culture and identity. The visual resonance in his work is undeniable, attesting to an awareness of art historical precedents and his ability to seamlessly fuse ancient and modern concepts and aesthetics with the flow of ideas between East and West to confront tradition while encouraging us to embrace a more expansive definition of modernism.

Bicycles inform the conceptual and aesthetic underpinning of Bryan McFarlane’s recent pictures. To the artist, the bicycle serves as a symbol of China’s rapid transformation and allows him to develop deeper understanding of the country. In this body of work, the artist endeavors to give visual forms to imaginations animated by perceptions of the bicycle as an ubiquitous icon in Chinese society. As eloquently stated by Edmund Barry Gaither, Director, Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, Massachusetts in his catalog essay for the artist’s recent exhibition in Kingston, Jamaica: “Bryan McFarlane deconstructs the bicycle treating the parts as fragments and freely suggesting ways in which they might be reassembled. He also abstracts from the bicycle conceptual notions such as circularity. Circular tire forms evolve into spirals of color and movement. The aesthetic overwhelms the practical, the concrete images yield to the liberation of abstraction”.

Bryan McFarlane was born in Moore Town, Portland, Jamaica. He was educated at the Edna Manley College of Art, Kingston, Jamaica and earned a MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art in 1983. He is Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and has previously served as Visiting Professor to a number of institutions including the University of the West Indies and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He worked on a three year project with EMMAS and TERC in Microbiome Research and another three years in Oceanography Science projects at “Woods Hole” with MIT scientists through a grant from the National Science Foundation. McFarlane has been featured in numerous exhibitions locally and internationally and is well represented in a number of public and private collections. His painting and mixed media works explore his Maroon heritage, African Diaspora culture and the environmental threats to the Anthropocene. He was awarded a gold medal by the Chinese Government for his entry in the Olympics Fine Arts Exhibition, Beijing in 2008. He was also awarded the prestigious Silver Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica for his contribution to art and art education. Bryan McFarlane lives in Boston, USA and St. Andrew, Jamaica. Boston.

I have a long and committed interest in the intersection of the practice of art making, art history and contemporary critical discussion. As an artist, I have been fortunate to receive several previous grants that allowed me to travel extensively to Brazil; Columbia; West Africa; Turkey; Japan and China to engage in international discourse regarding art history, art production and criticism. My engagement with the arts is also an intellectual endeavor. At every point, I have sought not simply to create art, but to understand the implications and possibilities for art within art history, criticism and philosophy as an intrinsic part of travel for art production.

China has recently become a very special part of my journey. I believe this time, it is one which will unquestionably define a most important period of my life’s work as an artist/painter. I initially set up a studio residency at the Red Gate Gallery for over two months during the summer of 2007. This activity allowed me the incentive I needed to move ahead on this path on solid grounds. From this juncture, I took the opportunity to create a series of work titled : “Bicyclical Journeys” in Beijing which grew out of my current “egg series”. In a special way, this experience feels like a familiar one, having grown up with numerous friends during my formative years in Jamaica with large numbers of close extended family members who were Chinese. (Jamaica has a large population of third generation Chinese immigrants who are well established since the turn of the 19th century, many of whom has firmly assimilated, contributing to important economic, political and socio-cultural life of Jamaica and the Caribbean.) I have gone ahead through this vision and inspiration to set up studios to work there for the duration, as it’s environment helps to shape a concept that might lead to the creation of new and more fresh and unique work . China has been a launching board for my current work to engage in the greater part of East Asia and the expanded contemporary art scene which China is now a major player as it levels the playing field.