ON VIEW
May 9 – 18, 2024
EXHIBITION OPENING
Thurs, May 9, 5 – 7 pm
May 9 – 18, 2024
EXHIBITION OPENING
Thurs, May 9, 5 – 7 pm
@ianmacfarlane.art
Ian MacFarlane
Ian MacFarlane (b. 1999) is an American artist based in Portland, Maine. His work engages with cuteness as an aesthetic mode of emotional embodiment. He received his undergraduate degree in visual arts, with a minor in architecture, from Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island in 2022. He is a current MFA candidate at Maine College of Art and Design (Portland, ME) and is expected to finish his degree in May of 2024. His work has been exhibited in the Raver’s Hospice group show at Roger That! Gallery in Bristol, Rhode Island and in the upcoming Thesis Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine.
Within my artistic practice, I use the aesthetic mode of cuteness to approach emotional embodiment. My work takes form through a whimsical world of ceramic characters; lumpy, wobbly, crude, and each unique in their own imaginative curiosity. I place value within the process of nurturing these characters through the transformative characteristics of clay.
Ian MacFarlane
Ian MacFarlane (b. 1999) is an American artist based in Portland, Maine. His work engages with cuteness as an aesthetic mode of emotional embodiment. He received his undergraduate degree in visual arts, with a minor in architecture, from Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island in 2022. He is a current MFA candidate at Maine College of Art and Design (Portland, ME) and is expected to finish his degree in May of 2024. His work has been exhibited in the Raver’s Hospice group show at Roger That! Gallery in Bristol, Rhode Island and in the upcoming Thesis Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine.
Within my artistic practice, I use the aesthetic mode of cuteness to approach emotional embodiment. My work takes form through a whimsical world of ceramic characters; lumpy, wobbly, crude, and each unique in their own imaginative curiosity. I place value within the process of nurturing these characters through the transformative characteristics of clay.
The MFA Thesis Exhibition for the Class of 2024 is a multidisciplinary exhibition unified by an urgency each of these MFA candidates expresses for what they see as fundamental to our shared experience of an increasingly disconnected world. With an emphasis on the personal, and at times the anecdotal, the artwork featured by these 12 artists varies in media to include ceramics, installation, painting, performance, photography, printmaking, video, sculpture, and zines. Seen together, these thesis projects hybridize a range of conceptual themes and material approaches as they relate to visual culture, the political landscape, and contemporary art practice. The nature of this work and research demonstrates the caliber and cultural relevance achieved by these graduates of Maine College of Art & Design’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program. Our studio-based curriculum creates a transformative learning experience and is designed to encourage students to follow where their work leads them, supporting them to define a sustainable vision for their own art practice through individualized research, critical analysis, and curatorial experimentation.
Institute of Contemporary Art
at Maine College of Art & Design
522 Congress St. Portland, ME 04101
Gallery Hours:
Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm,
Thursday, 11:00am–7:00pm