Mack McFarland is an independent artist and curator who creates a home in Portland, OR. His current focus examines experimental formalism and looks at dissent aesthetics and its relationship to Utopian thought. His works aim to develop a space for the viewer to experience an intersection of visceral aesthetic and cognation. These explorations manifest in the form of exhibitions, postcards, and sculptures. He has exhibited nationally and internationally; screening videos at Pixelodeon Festival at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, the La Enana Marron Film and Video Festival in Madrid, and at Cine Fantom in Moscow. McFarland has also created works for the Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts’ Time-Based Art Festival, and a three-month-long project for the Tacoma Art Museum, which Sheila Farr of the Seattle Times called “startling, nutty, and technologically relevant.” McFarland has been quoted as saying, “Wherever I am, I’m making.” His post-studio mantra has taken him to archives, karaoke microphones, canoes, and into his studio.
Mack McFarland wenwon@gmail.com
Exhibition Record
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
o Grand Detour, Portland, OR. phenomenon as revelation, 2010
o The White Gallery at Portland State University, Portland, OR. 10ft Pole Drawings, 2009
o New America Art Union, Portland OR. As part of The Video Gentlemen, BYOTV, 2008
o Portland Art Center, Portland OR. Preparations, 2007
o Higgins Gallery, Portland, OR. Culture for Robots, 2006
o Interactive Media Gallery, Portland, OR. Light Lover, 2005
o Resource Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Return, 2003
O Artist Television Access, San Francisco, CA. Trickle Down, 2002
SELECTED SCREENINGS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
o Portland2012: A Biennial of Contemporary Art, Disjecta, Portland, OR, 2012
o IN(ter)DEPENDENCE, Place Gallery, Portland, OR, 2011
o Graphomania, Garbageman Astronaut Project Space, Portland, OR, 2010
o Polterzeitgeist Persists. As Part of Weird-Fiction, Grand Detour, Portland, OR, 2010
o Standing Room Only, The Art Gym, Portland, OR, 2009
o Surface Tension, Gallery Homeland, Portland, OR, 2008
o Selections from ATA Film & Video Festival, Cine Fantom, Moscow, Russia, 2008
o Artist Television Access Video Fest, San Francisco, CA, 2008
o Selections from ATA Film & Video Festival, Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2008
o Eyes and Ears Pacific Vortex, Olympia Experimental Music Festival, Olympia , WA, 2008
o 8th Northwest Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, 2007
o Do No Harm vs Step Up, New American Art Union, Portland OR, 2007
o 4th Monkey Town Semiennial, Monkey Town, Brooklyn, NY, 2007
o Pixelodeon Festival, The American Film Institute, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
o The PDX Film Festival, Portland OR, 2007
o La Enana Marron Film and Video Festival, Madrid, Spain, 2007
o Artist Television Access Video Fest, San Francisco, CA, 2007
o Wooden Octopus Skull Experimental Music Festival, Seattle, WA, 2006
o TBA:06 Festival, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR, 2006
o Vent Tent, Public Performance with San Keller. Portland, OR, 2006
o The Great American Store(age), Spring Gallery, Dumbo, NY, 2006
o Night, New Nothing Cinema, San Francisco, CA, 2006.
o Bayennale 2005, Bay Area, CA, 2005
o Money, Port Angeles Fine Art Center, WA, 2005
o Night of the Living Dead Media, Diva Gallery, Eugene, OR, 2005
o Collaged Cinema, The Know, Portland, OR, 2004
o Light Therapy, Gallery Co. 7, Portland, OR, 2004
o Bunny! Blazo Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2003
o Dada Day, Build Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2002
EDUCATION
2010 Independent Curators International - Curatorial Intensive: Curating in the Public Realm
2006 Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
2002 Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA
1996 United States Navy Photography Training, NAS Oceana, VA
AWARDS
2012 Project Grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland, OR
2011 Andy Warhol Foundation grant for a six-exhibition series at PNCA.
2009 Project Grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland, OR.
2007 New American Art Union Couture (2008-09) grant.
2007 Paul G. Allen Family Foundation grant for Cultures in Conflict series at PNCA.
SELECTED PRESS
John Motley,“Intermation exhibit peers beyond the surface” The Oregonian. July 13, 2011
Lisa Radon, “Review: In(ter)dependence” ultrapdx.com, March 31, 2011
D.K. Row, “Mack McFarland curates a performance series at Performance Works NorthWest” The
Oregonian. April 29, 2010.
Lisa Radon, “Mack McFarland: Alleviating Aesthetic Static” ultrapdx.com. May 20th, 2010
D.K. Row, “Sandow Birk on the Iraq War and beyond” The Oregonian. November 05, 2009
Lisa Radon, “Review: Brian Lund, New Work” Culturephile- portlandmonthlymag.com. October 03, 2009.
D.K. Row, “Lost in Transmission.” The Oregonian. March 23, 2008.
Amy Bernstein, “Elegy to Analog.” portlandart.net. March 22, 2008.
Joseph Gallvan, “Joe Saccoʼs drawing toward deadline.” Portland Tribune. January 18, 2008.
Brian Libby, “Joe Sacco Retrospective” The Oregonian. January 24, 2008.
Sheila Farr, “In a sea of the familiar, one inventive installation sets sail”. Seattle Times, March 02, 2007.
Joseph Gallivan, “Visit the City youʼve never seen before”. Portland Tribune, September 8, 2006.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2006-present Curator for Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
SELECTED CURATED EXHIBITIONS
• Intermation: Jacob Ciocci, Cassandra C. Jones and Marieke Verbiesen. July 2011
• Sorted Books, Nina Katchadourian. September 2010
• George Johanson: Seven Decades of Painting. October 2010
• The Great Recession, Michael Mandiberg. April 2010
• BEAUTIES: Recent Drawings by Robert Hanson. January 2009
• Brian Lund: New Works. September 2009
• Graphic Articles: Joe Sacco. January 2008
• At Freedomʼs Door. Arvie Smith, Adriene Cruz and Joan Gaither. February 2008
• EVAPORATION / PERCOLATION: The Works of Lucinda Parker. November 2008
• OUTGROWN (Tracks and Shadows). Regina Silveira. Co-curated with Christy Wyckoff September 2007
