For Immediate Release:
Contact: David Kuehn, Executive Director
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Phone: (508) 428-0669
Email: David@cotuitcenterforthearts.org
Website: ArtsOnTheCape.org
Works by Bryan McFarlane and Brooke Mullins Doherty Opens May 23 at Cotuit Center for the Arts
Cotuit Center for the Arts presents exhibits by two abstract artists, Bryan McFarlane and Brooke
Mullins Doherty, from May 23 to June 22. The opening reception is Saturday, May 23, from 5 to 7
PM; there will be an Artist Talk at 5 PM.
Bryan McFarlane has long had an interest and commitment to the intersection of art making, art
history, and contemporary critical discussion across cultures. Born in Jamaica, where he grew up with
close family members cross-racially, he has traveled extensively to west Africa, Brazil, Colombia,
Turkey, Japan, China, Europe, and the Caribbean, not only to create art, but also to better
understand art history, criticism, and philosophy.
China has been an important influence. His studio residency at the Red Gate Galley in Beijing in the
summer of 2007 inspired him to create a series titled “Bicyclical Journeys,” which grew out of his
earlier “egg series.”
Lowery Stokes Sims, curator of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York (former curator at the
Museum of Modern Art), describes McFarlane’s work: “His canvases are populated with mysterious
amebic disks, fanned arcs, and elusive shapes that in some stances coalesce into references to bicycle
parts (wheels, handle bars, seats) or eggs. We can also find tables, ladders, floral flourishes, carts,
race card and even lighting fixture. These all exist and even float in variable space where no
Newtonian laws function.”
The bicycle and egg themes, though specific to his experience with Chinese people and cultures, both
in Jamaica and in China, also reflect universal cultural themes. His work may be described as modern
abstraction, but it also draws on figurative traditions and an eclectic mix of stylistic influences.
"My current work deals much with the permanent and yet fleeting aspect of time. I see time as a
mythical phenomenon overlapping scientific and measured time,” McFarlane writes in his artist
statement. “My work is about how arts and artifacts of diverse cultures have similar functions and
meaning and yet may cause conflicts depending on personal and cultural perspectives. My work
celebrates diverse cultures and their connectedness."
McFarlane recognizes the vitality of arts and culture emerging from China and other developing
world cultures. “These new cultures are forging the future through their fresh zest for life, and
growing discovery of their creative genius,” he said.
McFarlane is a professor of painting and drawing at UMass Dartmouth. He has exhibited at the
Institute of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and lectured at many
universities and museums throughout the US, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and East Asia.
He has received numerous awards, and his work is represented in collections nationally and
internationally.
Doherty’s exhibit, “Release,” includes monoprints, paintings, and sculptures. She is interested in the
many forces that affect people’s lives.
“Whorls and eddies of time, space, and circumstance shape our lives, while the frantically spiraling
dervishes of proton and electron clouds shape our smallest parts,” she writes in her artist statement.
“I am interested in visualizing this turbulence. Interconnections between lives, space, and time fuel
my daydreams and my artwork. I want to give shape to the many layers of forces creating the
intricate and amazing beauty of being.”
Some of these forces affect our lives, she said, but others pass through us and leave us, leaving us
untouched.
“I am interested in what we keep and what we let go. It is this letting go, or release, that I focus on,”
Doherty said.
Doherty’s dynamic wire-and-fabric sculptures remind people of marine organisms, coral, nerve and
muscle systems, or even sexy lingerie. “Everyone’s interpretation is different, each relating to their
own experience,” she said.
Doherty begins by creating a large wire-grid frame. “I like distorting and warping them; they start as
something even and geometric and end up much more organic.”
She covers the wire frames with fabric to create undulating shapes and ripples. “I’m interested in
both the process of stitching and how the ripple looks, especially in relation to microorganisms and
growths like lichen,” she said.
The placement of the sculptures and the shadows cast by them affect their interpretation. Doherty
shapes them to fit a particular exhibit space, conscious of their interaction with the walls. “It’s
another way of showing what is seen vs. what isn’t seen, but is felt,” she said.
Doherty makes stencils to create her monoprints and paintings, using different techniques for each.
Her stencils may be based around a theme, such as trees, and a color family. She gives thought to
color relationships and formal properties in her layering of the stencils, creating intriguing
complexities.
“Working with the tree-based imagery, I was thinking not just of trees, but also of relationships
between trees and veins and coral reefs, and the sorts of channels that direct blood and nutrients
through us at different levels. Then I realized that if I turned them upside down and combined them
with grids, they become something else. It opens new possibilities for meaning and interpretation.”
The gallery is open 10 AM to 4 PM Monday through Saturday and may also be viewed during evening
performances. Admission to the gallery exhibits, opening reception, and artist talks are free; no
advance registration is required.
Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information, visit
artsonthecape.org, or call 508-428-0669.
# # #
What:
Works by Bryan McFarlane and Brooke Mullins Doherty
Where:
Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit
When:
Exhibit: May 23 to June 22, Monday through Saturday (daily from Memorial Day through Columbus
Day), 10 AM to 4 PM and during events; Opening Reception: Saturday, May 23, 5 to 7 PM, with
Artist Talk at 5 PM
Admission:
Free
END