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Bryan McFarlane - Jamaica

Bryan McFarlane is an professor of painting and drawing at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth since 2001, and has been a visiting artist at over 35 universities and museums throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
 

McFarlane has received numerous awards, including a 2004 nomination for the Joan Mitchell Foundation, 1991, The Louis Comfort and Tiffany Foundation, 1977, Purchase Award from the National Gallery of Jamaica. In 1987, he was commissioned by Miller Brewing Company/Phillip Morris to paint portraits of 12 leading African-American Journalists, which were reproduced in the Gallery of Greats calendar.

McFarlane has works in collections including the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, the Museum of the National Center of African-American Artists. The DeSable Museum in Chicago, the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston and The Bank of Jamaica. His work is also represented in collections nationally and internationally.

Although McFarlane resides in the US., his Jamaican upbringing and the Jamaican environment are the bedrock of his creative self. He draws from aspects of powerful experiences derived from his travels throughout Turkey, West Africa, South America, the Caribbean and China.

Artist statement: "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. Having initially set up 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 entitled : “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, of which group 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 . 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 .

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Latest events:

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Shanxi Provincial Museum of Fine Arts 2016. 9.7-21

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China-Latin America and Caribbean 2016

Year of Culture Exchange

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Artists in Residency at Hunan Normal University, May 2016

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Latin America and Caribbean Visual Art Exhibition @ Beijing World Art Museum, May 2016

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