Tim McFarlane
Biography
Tim McFarlane is a painter based in Philadelphia, PA. His abstract paintings and works on paper examine the fluid and contradictory nature of memory and place as informed by time, with an emphasis on color, multi-layered systems and process. McFarlane’s observations of the visual impact of human activity and his everyday engagement with man-made and natural environments form the basis of his work. In addition to painting, his practice includes site specific mixed media installations, murals, photography and digital experimentation.
A 1994 Temple University/Tyler School of Art graduate, Tim has exhibited his work extensively in the U.S. in group exhibitions and major art fairs in New York, Miami, Dallas and San Francisco. McFarlane’s paintings and works on paper reside in numerous private and public collections such as The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Woodmere Museum of Art, The Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, Bucknell University, Fox School of Business (Temple University) and West Virginia University. His work is represented by the Bridgette Mayer Gallery (Philadelphia).
Artist Statement:
The fluid, inconsistent space of memory influenced by time, ongoing changes to man-‐made environments and human communication forms the foundation of content for my paintings and works on paper. My work is most informed by personal observations of human-‐driven changes like the ongoing remaking of public and personal spaces. The subject of my curiosity is the residual by-‐products of human activity seen in the remnants of old buildings at construction sites, random once-‐cherished belongings found on the street entangled with other detritus, public spaces changed through continual use and anonymous but public mark-‐making, like graffiti (and the resulting patterns left by the erasure (buffing) of graffiti). There is always evidence of a story of some kind to be found in these dislocated fragments of human life. By merging aspects of my lived experience, observations of changes occurring around me and imagined scenarios, I make non-‐objective work that reflects broad experiences of life and memory.
My works emphasize multi-‐layered systems, color (chromatic and gray scale) and process. In my paintings, overlapping forms and fractured spaces alternately support, negate and influence each other, mirroring events in everyday life. Shifts in formal relationships between layers, marks, color, and space, subtle and overt, contribute to the overall visual narrative in my work. My paintings and works on paper feature open and opaque layers that incorporate various modes of mark making including: direct painting, drawing, image transfers, stenciling and collage. My process relies on a sense of interdependence and chance happenings, which allows for multiple meanings in my work that can be explored by the viewer.
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