Private: Rachel MacFarlane

MacFarlane’s studio is a laboratory for the pedestrian and unwanted to become the grandiose and astonishing. She makes maquettes from found materials that are then arranged and lit as small-scale dioramas. In these tiny banal spaces, the edge of a cardboard cup may become a barricade, a chrome mylar base presents itself as a reflective swamp, and broken matchsticks are transformed into an architectural monument. The manufactured settings are used as still-lifes and are then transcribed into larger scale oil paintings of abstract space-scapes. MacFarlane frantically records the concrete forms present in the pathetic models that surround her and renders them impressive, arcane, and rhizomatic. The painted scapes are both mimetic and abstract. They become associative expeditions for the viewer to explore. The work is invested in exploring how painting is simultaneously illusory and material, transcendental and temporal, and propositional and definitive.

Rachel MacFarlane received her BFA, at Ontario College of Art and Design in 2008 as the drawing and painting medallist, and a Certificate of Advanced Visual Studies from OCAD Florence, Italy Satellite program in 2009. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at Nicholas Metivier Gallery,Toronto (2011, 2013), the Howard Park Institute, Toronto (2012) and Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax (2013). MacFarlane’s work has been included in many group exhibitions including the Triangle Arts Association; NYC, Studio 21, Halifax; Art Gallery of Ontario (Art Sales + Rental Gallery); Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto; X Pace, Toronto; Beaver Hall, Toronto; among others. Her work is included in the collections of Scotiabank, The Donovan Collection at St. Michaels College at the University of Toronto & numerous private collections. She has been the Robert Pope Artist in Residence at NSCAD University in 2014, a resident artist at the Triangle Artists Workshop, NYC in 2010, and a visiting artist at Cow House Studios, Ireland in 2012. MacFarlane is currently living and working at the Banff Centre and is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto. She is currently attending Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts as an MFA Candidate.