Tuesday, May 7th, 10:00am Kresge Classroom 321
(free and open to the public)
Sean McFarland explores contemporary and historical perceptions of the landscape. The work, part performance, part documentary, examines the history of the medium, photographic veracity, the materiality of photographs, and how our perceptions of the earth are ever changing. Mortality, time, narrative, landscape, and the significance of looking at images are central to the work. Taking sensory memories as a model, he creates photographs, drawings, sculptures, installation, videos, and books that attempt to create experiences with the natural world while questioning perceived gaps and intimacies between art, nature, and our mythological construction of wilderness and the western landscape.
Sean McFarland (US, 1976) received a MFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland (2004) and a BS from Humboldt State University, Arcata, California (2002). His solo exhibitions include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2017); Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York (2015); San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco (2009), and White Columns, New York (2004). His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA (2018); George Eastman Museum, Rochester (2016); The Photographer’s Playspace, Aperture, New York (2014-15); and Bay Area Now 6, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2011). His work is in the permanent collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Berkley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; George Eastman Museum; and the Milwaukee Art Museum.
McFarland has received numerous awards, including SECA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017), the Eureka Fellowship (2011), the Baum Award for an Emerging American Photographer (2009), and the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship (2009). He lives and works in San Francisco.