Our Neighborhood.

BUSHWICK [COLLECTIVE] 2018.

Photos by Lauren Guardalabene McLean + digital editing by PJM.

Bio-matter

Manipulated video from a recent shoot at Clay Patrick McBride's studio in Williamsburg.

Paul McLean

The Analyst At Work: Comments on “A      New Dimension”

By Paris Ionescu 

Paul McLean’s career as an artist, cultural critic, researcher, and new media pioneer has taken numerous storied turns, hewing here towards typifying the protagonist in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, and there towards the scene-irrupting subculture of Chinatown, L.A., transversing the world of Chris Kraus’ Tiny Creatures.

The work exhibited in “A New Dimension” is akin to a cross-section along the escarpment of what is a tremendously variegated larger body of work that McLean has established. The crux, and delight, of getting to know McLean’s practice, particularly his concept of dimensionality, is the requirement of a staid and highly meriting patience, both to see the work on its own wild (as in a Wild West or yonder of the mind) yet rigorous terms, as well as to grasp the organon of methods and tools he uses to expound upon and measure “dimensional” artmaking and markmaking against the evident realities of the contemporary era (the etymology of the word dimension, appropriately, stems from the Latin dimens, a measurement). The contemporary era, qua McLean’s work, has much in common with what Alain Badiou calls the Second Restoration - the first having been the period after the French Revolution - in which capital dominates, and thinking is abhorred, for its correlate is Truth, which necessarily brings with it the prospect of an abrogation of the current status quo in which the rich and powerful exploit the resource of unthinking in order to capitalize every social space that ought to remain constantly tested, unfolded, expanded ludically towards humanist ends. McLean’s work can be argued as dwelling in the struggle between humanity’s burden of technicity, - thought after production - and its potentially saving grace, spirit - or, preferable to McLean, Geistes in the sense Hegel gave to it – and this makes him, in every analysis, a spiritual-humanist artist. Not least, the works on display also address the threat that media manipulation and over-exposure can have on this Geistes, as well as the threat of the abstract apparatuses of global finance to Thought, in that, as Badiou also deplores, we are further divorced from indexicality, and the ‘chance’ of phenomenology has been replaced by an artificial chance of floating numbers, a crisis which in turn is enabled by what McLean labels ‘artificial persons’, namely the Corporation.

This remark leads one to the visual motifs that connect the span of media in which McLean works. The first misunderstanding to be eschewed in engaging McLean’s work is that of reading its iconography as hackneyed symbols of the paranoiac and outsider envisioning an Orwellian dystopic future, a Gibsonian gasmask culture that is the stuff of graphic novels more often than critical art. Granted, McLean’s use of such signifiers as the surveillant cycloptic eye, the sewn-shut mouth, the vaguely militaristic Americana swirling in the space around the recurring character the artist names Dim Tim, is earnest, but the signifieds, read in appropriately post-Panofskian terms in which the social history of the artist and his relations to the historical period’s technics are observed, are not purely what they seem.

For McLean, the imagery choices in each drawing, painting, software-based collage, or video vignette, act as so many points of departure for the establishment of a given problem, perhaps most adequately referred to in the sense given by Deleuze and Guattari of a generative motor (although McLean is clearly wary of the culture of the combustible, as Peter Sloterdijk defines our past century), to be resolved or at least developed by the work as it stands within a series of artistic proofs, as if in its own military role call. No single work of McLean’s is fully activated by itself; each is related, answered to, by a similar variation to be sleuthed and found elsewhere in the corpus of McLean’s artist-as-researcher practice. Michael Baers has written recently on the research-oriented tack certain strains of art have taken in recent years, and reminds us of the dual etymology of the word science: its Latin origin scientia,        “to know,” and its Greek origin scienzia, “to split, rend, or cleave.” In the progressive format McLean’s works take on - from sketch to painting, to computer rendering, to textual essay – we gain knowledge of the four-dimensional nature (that is, existing in space-time or, in certain cases, perhaps other unseen aspects of their presentness) of his subjects, whether like Bloomberg their politics are being expressly critiqued, or whether like Pueblo Native Americans their spiritual history is being depicted. This is done, indeed, via a splitting into various artistic operations, not least where the artist’s love of experimenting with materials is evident, but more often than not McLean takes the splitting aspect of science and mounts it upon his own committed interpretation of a Hegelian dialectics whereby the results are to be negated and re-synthesized until something new and unknown enters the picture.  

PLEASE NOTE

ART FOR HUMANS ONLINE UPDATE. Like many long-time Net Art practitioners, we view the current situation of pervasive surveillance and monopoly media co-opting and silo-ing the web as thoroughly FUBAR. In response to disturbing trends in the virtual domain (read NSA + partners), and significant authoritarian pressure coming in the form of rolling (pro) hacks of many areas of our network, AFH has undergone major changes over the past several years, including shifts away from web 2.0 satellite sites/apps like Facebook, Myspace, Ning, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Flickr, etc. .......Visible, virtual AFH exists at present in a cloudier, substantially reduced, configuration. We still maintain the image archives more or less, and sometimes use thoroughly compromised social media apps, but only rarely and strategically or tactically, for show announcements and whatnot. AFH online activity has been greatly curtailed. Where necessary, for practical purposes and on projects that will benefit from use of ubiquitous network tools, we will use them periodically on a case-by-case basis. We've been reconfiguring our ops to primarily analog arenas again, for the first time since the late 90s. Like many longtime, committed digital/network artsy users, we've decided to step back. You won't be seeing AFH on Instagram any time soon, most likely. We're exploring and developing other options, through Novads and other Dark Matter systems. Oh! ....another incidental note, while I have it in my head: Between September 2011 and October 2012, I was co-organizer of  Occupy with Art . In case you were wondering, much of the work I did with OwA entailed production management, & was not credited as it would have been in, say, a professional context, per fluid OWS collective protocols, and is now archived offline or through other portals, maintained by creative partners like Low Lives. We realize such a program makes data/content availability precarious and inconsistent. It's a bummer juggling act. Sometimes even seemingly good options are undermined by bad methodologies. For example, we did not database a version of OwA site with Tamamint (NYU), due to their protocol involving opening a big backdoor in our site, by installing CSS code changes to facilitate their downloading/transfer of content. In August 2012, I co-founded Occupational Art School in Bushwick, NYC, and in 2013, I launched Good Faith Space in Williamsburg/Brooklyn. We temporarily appropriated one of the main sites for OAS, and eventually built a Tumblr for archiving OAS materials. GFS has its own SS6 site, but our development is slow and minimal at present. We have to consider options with every project now in order to maintain some level of creative autonomy and still maximize user access. We haven't chosen to go completely old school protectionist, but it's on the table, as Dick Cheney might say.The PJM solo exhibition at SLAG Contemporary here in Brooklyn slated for June 2013 precipitated the re-organization of my virtual AFH content, which includes dozens of unlinked sites. So, to make a long story short, AFH is now pretty much limited to a couple of Squarespace sites (www.artforhumans.com and www.4dpop.com) , one a nexus, the other for major exhibits, and the thousands of old links on our server are cloaked. AFH Blog, brutally and repeatedly hacked, is dark, the AFH Wiki abandoned and dozens of online exhibits curtained, and so on. That's why some of the older links here in the bio areas may not transport you to the old social media sites or online HTML exhibits, and you might encounter other such zombie-stuff in click-thrus. In general all my online content dating to 1991 exists in archive form, on my servers. If you can’t find something you’re searching for in particular, drop me a line & I’ll let you know where it is, if it’s still online [almost all of it is - e.g., all the Tumblrs (over two dozen), and many of the early HTML, Flash, QTVRs, animated gifs, etc., etc. projects, too). - Paul

​Art for Humans navigation interface, ca. 2006

[ARTIST STATEMENT]

For an artist statement, I'm posting the Knowledge and Skills Assessment [KSA] I submitted in 2009 or -10 for an application for the job of NEA New Media Art Director. The KSA specifically covers my media art history and praxis in detail. It doesn't cover much of what I've done as a painter, but I'll get to that. ~Paul

>

My expertise in Media Arts is rooted in practical production technique as well as field analysis and current theory. As lead artist of innovative multidisciplinary collectives operating in a spectrum of presentation environments, I understand the logistics of integrating new and traditional art effectively in order to reach or develop the broadest audience. Whether the target demographic is local and community-centric, or global and emerging, I have developed strategies and tactics utilizing the best tools and practices available to generate interest in art in its dimensional iterations and expand the art horizon to include new media. I have a proven and documented track record of successful outcomes inside the traditional art field and in new domains becoming available for creative exploration. I have engaged in productive collaborations with emerging and accomplished artists from diverse cultural and technological backgrounds for art projects located in urban and rural settings. These productions have always demonstrated mindfulness of global media evolution, and have been designed to speak to that concurrency. My extensive academic training, fieldwork and professional affiliations have permitted me to maintain strong ties to the trends and concerns of the constantly evolving Media Arts domain.

As the foremost dimensional artist operating in the domain, I have consistently incorporated computer/web-based technologies as an early-adopter, since the early 90s. Friends, peers and associates have played important roles in educating me to possibilities and practicalities in new media arts. They include Jennifer Neiderst, the author of the O’Reilly HTML texts; Stephen Miller, the producer of one of the first purely digital artist websites (mkzdk.org); Ash Black and others at Studio X in Santa Fe, one of the first cultural retail nexus portals; Donald Ashworth Cox III, Internet 2 Director in the late 90s; and many others. I have always sought out the convergence of science and art, in the tradition of Leonardo da Vinci, and am inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s notion that civilization’s future depends on both. That said, as a production artist, student of the art business and immersive digital end-user, I am also aware of the economics of electronic invention, especially in the arena of consumer portables. The boundaries, which until very recently separated the art and technology markets, are increasingly blurred. This is true of most industries.

For me, new media has been a valuable tool for mapping individual (personal) and collective (historical) topologies in an art context. I noticed how interactive electronics mesh peoples’ daily lives via networked communication, shaping things we do, see, hear and feel. Media, I realized, was redirecting the mind’s eye in art-related fashion, generating new questions about what we know, how we become who we are and why we live the way we do. I recognized early on that new media was the art historical hinge of my lifetime. Ahead of the curve, in solo and collective projects in the United States and abroad, I introduced new media narratives as content in shows that combined electric and analog media in traditional and alternative art spaces. By the mid-90s I was using Internet cafes as production and exhibit environments, first in Santa Fe at Montezuma’s Café in 1995, then in the Electric Frog in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1996. At the Frog I presented one of the first hybrid traditional and new media exhibits, consisting of texts, objects and web-based material. The dimensional format allowed for the weaving of related narrative threads, both autobiographical and historical, into a faceted, mobile travelogue. The Electric Frog exhibit developed into one of the first international multi-platform and multi–venue artist programs with integrated content. The art migrated from An Tuirreann Art Center on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, to retail galleries in Nashville Tennessee and eventually into private and public collections including King County Hospital’s in Seattle. Collaborators included City of Edinburgh graphic designer Stuart Adie and accomplished Scottish photographer Diane Barrie. At this point I had established the principle components and practicum for the next decade’s work in dimensional art.

In 1996 I began to explore digital printmaking, exhibiting one of the first fine art bodies of work created on large format printers anywhere by anyone (Cowboyz + Cowgirlz, Four Crows Gallery, Nashville). I produced a series of original images, sampling iconic Western historical portraits and Hollywood portraits, which I intermingled with original contemporary portraits in computer-generated pictorial space. The colorful digital paintings were output on canvas and finished with hand-painted elements. That exhibit also marked my trial run as collective lead artist. I coordinated a print /e-mail marketing campaign, guided by Ellen Rudick of Team Design, whose production management helped garner a Grammy for Team for the Hank Williams Boxed Set, a trendsetting project in the field. Other collaborators, Charlotte Avant and Daniel Tashian, contributed to a complex exhibit format combining soundtrack, design and moving image. Since Cowboyz, my progression as an artist printmaker continues to evolve through the present spanning the emergence of numerous hardware, software and output improvements in the digital print field. That timeframe spans the almost total conversion of the print/camera industry from film to digital. Most recently, I produced unique sculptural prints using a large format Mimaki hi-resolution UV curation printer, applying images directly onto acrylic substrates/trans-surfaces for an exhibit at Timothy Yarger Fine Arts in Beverly Hills in 2008. The presentation also featured optical feedback effect (OpFeek) interactive projections thrown on monumental cast vinyl wall holographs.

The collective framework is a central aspect of my work now, and has been since I established DddD (1999) and 01 (2000) in Nashville. When I first started forming collective projects, I experienced significant resistance to the idea that art need not be the product of artist isolation and other conditions of lack. My high-performing and fluid collectives consisted of a diverse roster of artists, filmmakers, scientists, post-production and web professionals, composers, musicians, dance professionals, illustrators, sculptors, production experts, wordsmiths, designers, architects, engineers, videographers, installation, movement and performance artists and craftspeople. We maintained a rigorous exhibit schedule and used those exhibits as showcases for multi-platform innovation. Today, only a decade later, this approach is normative. Our impact was not limited to the artistic and technical. I helped found new models for private-public sponsorship at the institutional level, such as Destination Gallery at First Union Tower, in addition to significant in-kind donation programs made possible by major corporations like MCSi and Apple through their local affiliates. These partnerships enabled the introduction of new electronic technologies for Internet, audio and visual content in museums, galleries, foundations, alternative spaces, performance venues and private or semi-private residential and commercial locations, and for early iterations of “urban screens” or mobile screenings. The dimensional promotion of ongoing projects applied electronic technologies before or as they reached market, in conjunction with traditional media, such as radio, print press with advertising and hard copy mailers, and television. My development of cohesive identity and branding approaches allowed for the optimized use of new media technologies, such as digital networked contact campaigns, blogging, image push through combined virtual and actual database-based networks, long (in web-relative terms) before the trend mainstreamed.

I have devoted thousands of hours to open sourcing new media art, embracing the web as a publishing tool to promote awareness of the domain and its implications. Aesthetic and technical transparency is rudimentary to dimensional production. Any and all apps developed for or in my projects have been published in free libraries of online archived texts, images and movies. The Art for Humans (AFH) photo archive, for example, contains close to 90,000 stills. The AFH Blog has logged well over a million hits and half-a-million downloads, since 2005. Initially, this activity defied common art-world notions of proprietary creative authorship. Starting in 2000, I have used Blogger, Fotolog, Flickr, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Wiki, Tumblr, Wordpress, Ebay, Etsy, Vimeo, Slider, Twitter, Zotero, Delicious, NING and other platforms to make my solo and collective work and research available to all. The Art for Humans-branded social media platforms complement the artist nexus site (artforhumans.com), the mission of which is to present, promote and distribute new media art content, art economics and media philosophy to the broadest audience possible. Art for Humans is one of the most highly trafficked individual new media artist sites in the world. The online galleries have exhibited made-for-web exhibits and web-only books. Art for Humans has also been a critical platform for emergent trends in art media and media philosophy. Topics range among all creative fields and draw data from all social sectors. The AFH online configuration is transitioning to a Cloud computing format for 2011-2.

I have consistently created projects that anticipate developments in the new media art field. Some notable projects I have presented in art shows include: “A Prayer for Clean Water” (2005) in which we created an interactive kiosk for generative artwork, translating text “prayers” through software into graphics for display in the actual exhibit and online, with a printable copy sent via email to the “prayer-data” contributor’s inbox (predating current practices in data visualization). In 2002 I commenced a tactical art campaign called “37212: NOT JUST A ZIP CODE/A WAY OF LIFE” that pushed memes through community retail and word-of-mouth buzz pipelines, predating the tactical advertising trends of the past several years. I have built on that project by utilizing Web 2.0 social media tools (Twitter: ARTIFICIAL PERSONS DON’T CARE) to help shape major media discussions with long-term effects. I have used multi-platform formats to disseminate comprehensive curricula and syllabus content, first through traditional educational channels, then through web-based content management systems to a global wired classroom, with the help of AFH WIKI, blogs and Nings. In consultancies, I have proposed designs for distribution hierarchies for photographic art archives in multiple formats – both binary and hard-copy or as unique objects – from free baseline or entry levels to luxury markets (Associated Press Proposal, consultancy for photographer Steven Day). I am currently embarking on a phase of academic publishing, submitting in digital humanities protocols. I am exploring options for releasing data in downloadable formats outside “gated” access modes, through scalable transaction nodes (Web Studies Conference 2010, Toluca, Mexico, “Into Dimensionism”). Finally, I’m interested in reviving a new media-based “illuminated manuscript’ format design for faceted platforms, but specifically for release on e-reader tools. I am always scanning for apps that serve multiple functions as clickable entertainment, inspiration, invitation to discourse, open peer challenge, and free speech exchange (AFH Tumblr Array, 2009).

My Masters projects specifically focused on the development of a multi-use facility model, structured as private enterprise-public service hybrid, existing as self-sustaining entity in the community arts ecology, operating multi-directionally with developers, educators, artists, retailers, manufacturers and product distributors, performers, analysts, institutions and foundations, and arts organizations of every description, from local to international. The proofs were actualized in HUM 10+1, one of the first online collective exhibit cycles married to an “actual” exhibit cycle – ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN, which consisted of several dozen exemplar exhibits, performances and screenings by artists from around the world, launched over a four-month phased timeline, in what at the time was possibly the “hottest” visual arts district anywhere. These innovations were accompanied by prodigious documentation and field analysis and evaluation, posted on the web in close to real-time, with supporting culturally sensitive historical context, and comparative reviews. Critic Emma Gray of Artnet.com, the most comprehensive online arts nexus in the world, wrote of AFH Gallery Chinatown, “Paul McLean…built a strong multidisciplinary multimedia collective, using as a primary source the MySpace, YouTube and Flickr communities.”

Throughout my career I have sought to continuously expand my knowledge of arts ecology and economy, and to develop a thorough comprehension of cultural dynamics affecting the exchange or transmission of art, craft and ideas. By engaging the domain as a writer, a private tutor, classroom educator, radio program host and student I have gained perspective on new media art’s pertinent issues. My grasp of new media is rooted in “old” media - history, archeology, conservation, and language studies - and informed by philosophy and social investigation or analysis. Old and New together help one avoid the infinite feedback loop. As I fold knowledge into practice as routine, I convey the lessons learned on the ground or in the arena of idea-exchange through object demonstrations accessible to all in the public and private spheres. Important milestones in this trajectory include extensive involvement in several of the nation’s top gradated cultural markets, including Santa Fe, Nashville, Austin, Los Angeles and most recently New York City. My multi-residency in Eureka, California, hosted by Americans for the Arts affiliate Ink People Center for the Arts, one of the nation’s original rural art centers, in conjunction with the Morris Graves Foundation and a strong representation of local private and public arts-related entities, provides a dimensional template for the synthesis of community resources toward common cultural purposing. For research purposes, I think it’s relevant that when I performed this six-month production under the auspices of the AFH Journeyman Project, Eureka topped the list small art towns in America according to author John Villani.

Relationships contributing to my perspectives involve recognizable figures in the international art world, such as: Richard Tuttle, whose 1995 Venice Biennale production I participated in at Goldleaf Framemakers of Santa Fe, under the guidance of the artist and master gilder and artist Martin Horowitz; collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel, to whom I was introduced by Tuttle; Frank Stella, to whom I was introduced by collectors and public art advocates Dan and Connie Lembark, who also introduced me to public artists such as Richard Haas, Stephen Antonakos, and others; Santa Fe artists Bob Wade – an NEA visual art grantee – Elias Rivera, Woody Gwyn, Tom Palmore, James Havard, Ron Robles, designer of the Georgia O’Keefe museum building, and others.

As a result of continuing education recently I have cultivated relationships with and/or received instruction from artists and arts or management experts through my MFA and Arts Management Masters courses at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and masters-related work in Los Angeles. Artists include painter and educator John Millei, recently given significant kudos on artnet.com, L.A.-based painter and collectivist David Amico, pioneering sound artist Michael Brewster, Susan Joyce of Fringe Exhibitions, A-list gallerist Mihai Nicodim, L.A. Times art critic and curator David Pagel, Robert Berman of Santa Monica Auctions, Mark Allen of innovative community collective Machine Project, much-lauded artist and professor Steve Roden, urban screens pioneer Anne Bray of L.A. Freewaves, art and technology stars The McCoys, MacArthur award winner Mark Bradford and others.

I worked with management experts such as Joseph Maciarello, long-time collaborator and co-author of Management with 2002 Medal of Freedom awardee Peter Drucker. Maciariello was also my Drucker School masters thesis advisor. Shared leadership authority Craig Pearce helped shape my leadership self-assessment through the lens of organizational behavior, using case studies comparatively. I attended seminar presentations with creativity studies progenitor Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi and creativity authority Sir Kenneth Robinson. L.A. County Arts Commission Director Laura Zucker guided me through grant processes, using the actual LACAC grant-processing documentation as the case study. My arts management training at CGU allowed for direct interaction with many other notable international, national and Southern-California-based economics and arts-org figures, with whom I shared classroom and individual exchanges. In the course of my studies at CGU, I obtained intensive education in all areas of arts management, negotiation, marketing, arts-org accounting and financial development practices, human resources, funding development, programming, mission development and execution. Proximity to metropolitan Los Angeles afforded access to major U.S. cultural institutions, their representatives and leadership: L.A. Opera, L.A. Unified School District, L.A. County Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Idyllwild Arts Academy, L.A. Symphony, and donor foundations such as the Irvine Foundation and others. I was afforded the opportunity to access insider data, such as financials, and hear how organizational leadership works from the organization leaders, which has vastly improved my skill set, derived prior from mostly artistic production.

In the summer of 2010 I commenced doctoral studies at the European Graduate School, in Saas Fee, Switzerland, where I attended the Internet and media philosophy intensives-seminar with some of the domain’s most relevant voices, theorists and practitioners, as well as other powerful figures in the EGS lineage, including electronic knowledge and technology anthologist Friedrich Kittler, Geert Lovink, Hendrik Speck, Bruce Sterling, Lev Manovich, Paul Miller (DJ Spooky), Mitchell Joachim, Jean-Luc Nancy, Sylvere Lotringer, and others. My immediate advisor is EGS founder Wolfgang Schirmacher, and my current central interests include Jean Baudrillard and layered- or Hyperreality, as evidenced in dimensional time, triangulated on specific objects, both artificial or derivative and natural. This investigation builds on foundational studies I conducted on Donald Judd and the arts destination phenomenon of Marfa, Texas, including visits to both Chinati and Judd Foundations, and exhibiting institutions across the U.S., during my MFA course. My current artwork focuses on the Matterhorns in Switzerland and Disneyland, and their millions of iterations in the media and arts, exploring the attached design-arcs and fictions, digitization processes, compression, duplication, reproduction, re-mediation, interpretation, subject-orientation, mobilization and objectification, among other dimensional aesthetic considerations.

[CV]

PAUL McLEAN

EDUCATION

2009-Present: Ph.D. Media and Communications candidate, European Graduate School, Saas Fee, Switzerland

2008 M.A., Arts & Cultural Management, Drucker/Ito School of Finance, Claremont Graduate University

2007 M.F.A., Digital Media Concentration, Claremont Graduate University; Claremont, CA

1986 B.A. English, Fine Arts Concentration, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN

EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED ONE-MAN SHOWS

2014: “Code Duello, Old Hick & a Big Bang,” David Lusk Gallery, Nashville, TN

2013: “Fallacies of Hope,” SLAG Gallery, Bushwick/Brooklyn, NYC, NY

2012: “NO MAS: Occupational Art School;” Co-Lab Projects, Austin, TX

2011: “Struggle, Mission, Task;” Hotel Metropol, Saas-Fee, Switzerland (EGS)

2008-10: [At artforhumans.com] “MGT;” “Song of the Bush;” “I Love You, Monster” (New Paintings); “ARTSTAR;” “Vision + Beauty;” “How To Start a Collective in a Recession;” “Notes on Dimensional Time;” “There’s No Art in Hell;” “Cali Car Culture;” plus many others

2008: “Content5,” Yarger|Strauss Contemporary Art, Beverly Hills, CA

2007: “Content4,” MFA Thesis expo, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA; “Lula #1: Super Lucky #1,” ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN; Los Angeles, CA; “Content,” ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN; Los Angeles, CA; “Patterns #1,” ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN; Los Angeles, CA; “Patterns #2,” ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN; Los Angeles, CA

2006: “Seven Episodes;”Claremont Graduate University Installation Gallery; Claremont, CA

2005: “A Prayer For Clean Water, Parts I-III”; St. Edward’s University Fine Arts Gallery; Austin, TX; “Overflow Show”; Pump Project at Shady Tree Studios; Austin, TX

2004: “Entry”; Gallery Lombardi; Austin, TX

2003: “Eureka!”; Guider House; Nashville, TN; “Homage”; Eureka City Hall; Eureka, CA; “Eureka”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Dress Rehearsal”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Little Girl”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Corrupted”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Digital Prints form Seam”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Snowhaus”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Solace”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy)

2002: “D.I.G. Through V”; Downtown Presbyterian Church; Nashville, TN; “Give Away”; Guider House; Nashville, TN; “Last Call”; AFH Studio; Nashville, TN; “Dance Theatre School”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Little Girl”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Lightboxes”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Haunted”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Prick”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “RX”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Creativity Pays “; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Incidence”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Road Show 2: Afterburn”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Music for the Mind”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Skin and Ink”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Road Show”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Opening Credits”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Conversations at TAG”; Art for Humans (HTML by Shane Kennedy); “Portraits”; New Media and performance; 33rd Nashville Independent Film Festival; Nashville, TN; “Out with the Old/In with the New”; Open Studio; Nashville, TN; “Conference Room”; TAG Gallery; Nashville, TN

2001: “Culture01”; Polifilo ; Nashville, TN: “15 FPS Part 2”; multimedia presentation; Six Degrees Restaurant; Nashville, TN: “15 FPS Part 1”; multimedia presentation for Nashville film community; Citation Soundstage; Nashville, TN: “Jewels of the Nagas”; Yoga Source; Nashville, TN

2000: “The Hunger & the Feast”; ongoing installation; Virago; Nashville, TN; “Windows to the World” (01); Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery; Nashville, TN; “Heartless 01” (01); JJ’s Café & Market; Nashville, TN

1999: “Cowboyz + Cowgirlz Revisited”; Dreamworks; Nashville, TN

1998: “ZOUNDS!!!”; The Pineapple Room at Cheekwood Museum; Nashville, TN (lecture); “The Embrace”; Third Coast Clay; Nashville, TN; “Cowboyz + Cowgirlz”; Four Crows Gallery; Nashville, TN

1997: “Tobacco Road”; The Arts Company; Nashville, TN; “Where My Feet Stick To The Ground”; The Peanut Gallery; Nashville, TN

1996: “Like A Rolling Stone Of Destiny”; The Electric Frog; Edinburgh, Scotland; “My Own Private Glencoe”; An Tuireann Arts Center; Portree, Isle of Skye; Scotland; “The Divorce Industry”; Eidolon Gallery; Santa Fe, NM

1995: “Easels, Cities, Aliens & Spaceships”; Private Residence; Santa Fe, NM

1992: “Johnny Law Kilt Mah Bruther”; Luna Gallery; Santa Fe, NM (performance); “Wreckrospective”; Zia Diner; Santa Fe, NM

1991: “Look Out She’s Moving”; Santa Fe Bakery; Santa Fe, NM

1986: “The Cyclopean Eye”; The Art Building; Notre Dame, IN

SELECTED COLLABORATIONS, GROUP SHOWS

2014: “OPENING,” David Lusk Gallery, Nashville, TN

2013: Lead Artist of Good Faith Space at Standard ToyKraft (Williamsburg/Brooklyn) 

2011-12: Occupy with Art co-organizer for “Occupy Printed Matter,” Printed Matter, Chelsea (NYC); “Low Lives: Occupy!” at NYU’s Hemispheric Institute (NYC); “Lapsed Logic” at Hyperallergic; “Wall Street to Main Street” in Catskill, NY; “CO-OP/Occuburbs/Occufest” in Huntington, Long Island + more…

2012: “MIC CHECK: OCCUPY,” Sideshow Gallery (NYC)

2011: “A New Dimension,” Silvershed (NYC); Dependent Art Fair, with Silvershed (NYC); Collective Show/Silvershed Gallery, performance with Reading Group #1, in conjunction with New Museum’s “Festival of Ideas” (NYC)

2010: Gramatica Parda; ANDLAB Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2007: Lead Artist, ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN; Los Angeles, CA: “100+ Hanks”; Rhizome’s Art Base (NYC); “BIO”; Rhizome’s Art Base (NYC); “FALL”; Rhizome’s Art Base (NYC); “A Prayer for Clean Water”; Rhizome’s Art Base (NYC); “Glenn Goldberg + NYC Artists”; Philip Slein Gallery; St. Louis, MO; 2nd Year MFA Expo; Claremont Graduate University; Claremont, CA

2006: SCOPE Miami/Art Basel Miami; with Perpetual Art Machine (NYC)

2005: “Pump Projects Presents: Peep Show”; Shady Tree Studios; Austin, TX; “Cross Ref.”; Pump Project at Shady Tree Studios; Austin, TX; “PumpedXmess”; Shady Tree Studios; Austin, TX

2004: “Unframed Works”; SCA Projects Gallery Pomona, CA

2003: “Circus Maximus; Cultura”; The Castle Door; Nashville, TN; “Ethereal Conecepts”; David L. Dickirson Gallery; Tamarack, WV Cultural Center; Beckley, WV; “Bar Codes, Rituals, & Subliminal Tapes”; AFH Gallery; Eureka, CA

2002:”Fire…”; Bohan (Advertising Agency); With John Guider; Nashville, TN; “Summer Selections”; Cumberland Gallery; Nashville, TN; 3rd Annual VAAN Studio Tour (Preview Show Watkins College); Nashville, TN

2001: “Small Packages 7”; Cumberland Gallery; Nashville, TN; “Fall Leaves Fall” (01); Exit/In; Nashville, TN; 2nd Annual VAAN Studio Tour (Preview Show at Watkins College); Nashville, TN; “Seam” (01); Attic Gallery; Nashville, TN; “Home” (01); Ruby Green Contemporary Arts Foundation; Nashville, TN

2000: “A Cold Empty Feelin’” (01); Ruby Green Contemporary Arts Foundation; Nashville, TN; “Heartless” (01); Poetry Reading & Multimedia; Bean Central; Nashville, TN; “Dog Show” (01); Fido; Nashville, TN; 1st Annual Nashville Artists’ Studio Tour (Preview show at ArtSynergy); “D.I.G. Through III”; Downtown Presbyterian Church; Nashville, TN (Best of Show Award); “Home Show”; Coordinated art open-house at multi-million dollar residence; Nashville, TN; “Sensing Change”; ArtSynergy; Nashville, TN; “Artwork, Movie Stills, Sets”; Ground Zero; Nashville, TN; “Inside>Outside” (DddD); installation at Parthenon Museum East Gallery: Nashville, TN

1999: “In Sickness & In Health” (DddD); In the Gallery; Nashville, TN; “Sirens & Conflagrations” (DddD); installation at Cheekwood Museum’s Temporary Contemporary; Nashville, TN; “D.I.G. Through II”; Downtown Presbyterian Church; Nashville, TN (panel discussion)

1998: “Artclectic; University School of Nashville; Nashville, TN; “D.I.G. Show”; Downtown Presbyterian Church; Nashville, TN (panel discussion)

1996: Local Color; Nashville, TN; Gallery of Tennessee Artists; Nashville, TN

1993-4:”Regional Standard Arts Project”; Exhibited in over one dozen Group Shows; Santa Fe, NM

1992: “All Souls Show”; Luna Gallery; Santa Fe, NM

1991: “Black & White”; Aztec Cafe; Santa Fe, NM; “Portraits”; Aztec Cafe; Santa Fe, NM

1988-9: Beckley Newspapers Inc. 7th Annual Juried Exhibition; Beckley, WV (Purchase Award)

1987: 56th Annual Allied Artist Juried Exhibit; Sunrise Museum; Charleston, WV (Purchase Award)

1986: Senior Show; Snite Museum of Art and Isis Gallery; Notre Dame, IN; 3rd Annual Museum Shop Juried Exhibition; The Contemporary Museum of Chicago; Chicago IL

1985: 2nd Annual Museum Shop Juried Exhibition; The Contemporary Museum of Chicago; Chicago IL; American T-Shirt Gallery; New York, NY; Unique Boutique; New York, NY; Virtu; Detroit, MI; Commander Salamander; Washington, DC

ART FAIRS

The Dependent Art Fair, NYC, 2011, with Silver Shed Gallery

LA Art Show, Los Angeles, CA, 2008-Present, Timothy Yarger Fine Art

NADA Miami, FL 2008-Present, Timothy Yarger Fine Art

Bridge Berlin, Germany, 2009 Timothy Yarger Fine Art

SCOPE (multiple), Perpetual Art Machine

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Rhizome [New Museum] Art Base; New York City, NY

Linda Goldstein, Original Artists; New York City, NY

Boult, Cummings, Conners, & Berry PLC; Nashville, TN

Mr. & Mrs. Hewlett Smith, Former Governor of West Virginia; Beckley, WV

Demetria Kalodimos, Filmmaker, Anchorwoman, Channel 4 News; Nashville, TN

King County Memorial Hospital; Seattle, WA

Sunrise Museum; Charleston, WV

Union Station Sheraton Hotel; Pittsburgh, PA

Ground Zero; Nashville, TN

TBA Entertainment (Brooks and Dunn)

Loews Vanderbilt Hotel; Nashville, TN

Morris Graves Foundation; Loleta, CA

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Paul McLean, from 2011 - 2013, published writings in Artinfo and the Brooklyn Rail. In 2010 he was interviewed by MutualArt (the interview was also published in the Jerusalem Post as “Exploring the Art Blogosphere). As co-organizer of Occupennial/Occupy with Art/Occupational Art School, McLean has also been interviewed for NY Arts Magazine, Hyperallergic, the Art Newspaper, Chronogram and other publications.

Occupy with Art/OWS Arts & Culture have been covered in many national and international web and print media, including the New York Times, The Nation, Artforum, The Guardian, Artfagcity, Art:21, The Art Newspaper, The Huffington Post, and The LA Times.

[Since 2000 Paul McLean publishes one of the most highly trafficked network of artist blogs in the world, including AFH Blog, the now-defunct AFH Myspace Blog, an array of three dozen Tumblr blogs, and more. The network has published over 10000 posts, generated well over 2 million hits, and over 600,000 downloads.]

Coverage of Dependent Art Fair, and Silver Shed/Paul McLean artwork included artinfo, art observed, HYPERALLERGIC, artfagcity, etc… + NY Times

ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN was covered in the artnet magazine feature LA Confidential by Emma Gray in 2007.

The project was also reviewed in Artillery Magazine, Citizen LA and LA Weekly in Daniel Hernandez’ blog. AFHGC received many acknowledgements in webzines & artblogs around the web world universe.

LAZER Artzine No. 3 (2008)

McLean, 01 and DddD have been previewed and reviewed numerous times by Nashville publications The Tennesean (12), SensoredMagazine (2), The Nashville Scene (7), The City Paper (4), Nashville In Review (3), and Nashville Rage (2).

“Paul McLean: Artist in Residence”; North Coast Journal, Humboldt County, CA; feature by Linda Mitchell

Santa Fe New Mexican, review of the Regional Standard Arts Project (1993)

[More on request]

RESIDENCIES

2013

chanorth/chashama [Pine Plains, NY]

2012

Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus [Bushwick/Brooklyn/NYC]

Hyperallergic (OWS A+C Spatial Team)[Williamsburg/Brooklyn/NYC]

2005

St. Edward’s University

Shady Tree Studios

2003

The Morris Graves Foundation

Ink People Center for the Arts

Riverwind, LLC

ARTS RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE

Numerous lectures and panel discussions; in 2009 McLean was selected as one of nine working artists in America to participate in the first National Endowment for the Arts panel forum on federal arts policy, hosted by WESTAF. Most recently, McLean appeared with Judith Molina at Living Theatre in a discussion on Paul Goodman.

2011-12: Co-organizer of Occupy with Art.

2006-Present: Produced or many online collectives using social media, which are currently either functional or in development, including: AFH Monster Collective; AFH Friends Collective; The US Commonwealth Party; AFH International Artist’s Union; AFH Artist Portrait Project and others; also served as consultant on site development for online artist projects, including projects by Shane Kennedy (NYC), Joe Merrell(LA), Dane Carder (Nashville), Chanic (France, Congo), Gras Free (Belgium), and others.

2007: Lead Artist, owner/operator of ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY CHINATOWN (LA, CA). Handled press relations, identity and design, curator and preparator duties, website maintenance, blogging and project documentation. Produced over twenty exhibits and screenings in four and a half months.

2006

Cantanker Magazine; Austin, TX

Co-Founder, editorial consultant and regular national/international contributor to the online and print magazine for visual arts and culture based in Austin, Texas

2005

L.A. Packing, Crating & Transport; Los Angeles, CA

Installed, prepared for shipment, transported and handled some of the world’s most precious artworks and cultural objects; clients included LACMA, MOCA, The Weismann Foundation, The Norton Simon Museum and many private collectors and institutions.

2003: Reviewed the Armory Show, NYC for THE Magazine (Santa Fe, NM Arts Monthly)-unpublished

2002: Book review for The Tennessean; Nashville, TN

2000: Staff contributor of art listings and mini-reviews for Gannett publication Nashville Rage

1998-1999

Staff columnist for Nashville In Review; Nashville, TN

Weekly visual arts reviewer for citywide publication; used forum to help Nashville legislate a Percent for Public Art program

1998-2001

First Union Tower/Destination Gallery; Nashville, TN

Directed project for the integration of art and commerce in downtown Nashville high-rise office building; established exhibition space, the Destination Gallery, and curated exhibitions of paintings by artist Don Vogl, photographs by Scottish photographer Diane

Barrie, and others; established annual exhibitions of works by building tenants; established Destination Gallery Newsletter for tenants of First Union Tower, notifying them of arts events

1998

Artradio Radio Program; WRVU Radio Station; Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN

Produced, hosted and directed live radio show, featuring interviews with artists, art collectors, publishers, writers, museum and arts organization personnel; also featured musical performances and radio drama; featured guests included Frank Stella, Richard Haas, Tom Otterness, Stephen Antonakos, Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, Alexandra Nakita and many others

1995-6

Goldleaf Framemakers of Santa Fe; Santa Fe, NM

Manufactured fine gilded picture frames for renowned artists, such as Richard Tuttle, Susan Rothenberg, Woody Gwyn and Elias Rivera; involved selecting, cutting, and preparing raw wood moldings for gilding; burnishing, applying finishes to frames and preparing frames for hanging; handled delivery, shipping and packing, and shop maintenance; Owner famed guilder Marty Horowitz

Artwaves and Art Talk Radio Programs; KVSF and KSFR Radio Stations; Santa Fe Community College; Santa Fe, NM

Produced, hosted and directed live radio show, featuring interviews with artists, art collectors, publishers, writers, museum and arts organization personnel; also featured musical performances and radio drama; featured guests included Richard Tuttle, Bob Wade, Ron Robles, John Connell, Terry Allen, Julie Lazar, The Vogels (Collectors), and many others

David Rettig Fine Arts; Santa Fe, NM

Assistant gallery director for 19 year-old gallery, featuring the work of Bob Haozous, David Di Suvero, and others; answered phones, handled sales, shipped and packed art installed art, and assisted with artists’ receptions

Regional Standard Arts Project; Santa Fe, NM

Established and operated for fourteen months an artists’ gallery and networking center, exhibiting the work of over one hundred artists and artisans; organized, curated, installed exhibitions; coordinated and facilitated member meetings, speakers (such as

Armando Lara) and performers; handled sales, shipping and packing, scheduling, and accounting

Old World Tile; Santa Fe, NM

Assisted master tilesetter Juan Lopez install fine tile and stonework in Santa Fe area homes

1990-2

Joe Wade Fine Arts and Joe Wade Contemporary Art; Monte Wade Fine Art; Terry Wade Fine Art; Santa Fe, NM

Worked as gallery salesman for oldest downtown Santa Fe gallery and four other Wade family-owned galleries Contemporary Southwest and Frank Howell Galleries; Santa Fe, NM

Handled art installations for over forty artists in a 3500 sq. ft. space in downtown Santa Fe; shipped and packed art; saold and telemarketed artwork to collectors from around the world; assisted at artists’ receptions and transporting artwork

The Hollander Collection; Santa Fe, NM

Director of gallery featuring the art of Gino Hollander and his collection of Spanish colonial furniture

1989-95

Elaine Horwitch Galleries; Santa Fe, NM

Assisted installation of exhibits by gallery artists, including Woody Gwyn, Thurman Statim and many others; shipped and packed art; assisted at artists’ receptions and transporting artwork; outside installations

1989-90

Artisans de Santa Fe; Santa Fe, NM; Stretched Canvas in venerable Santa Fe art supply store for hundreds of local, national and international artists

1988-9

Freedom Gallery; Beckley, WV

Owned and operated art gallery, handling all aspects of business

1984-6

Funkshunart; USA

Manufactured and marketed unique hand-painted clothing, which was sold at the Contemporary Museum of Chicago Museum Shop,

and numerous boutiques across the country

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2012: Co-Founded the Occupational Art School

2011-12: Visiting artist at NY Studio Residency Program (Dominique Nahas) and School of Visual Arts (Joseph Nechvatal, Fawn Potash)

2005: Series of four lectures and demonstrations at St. Edward’s University, Austin TX

“4D Aesthetics for Community Arts Projects and Community Artists”; Lecture at Shady Tree Studio, for Pump Projects, Austin, TX

2003: Lectured at Parsons’ New School of Art to graduate students on “The 4D Artist & Applied Aesthetics”

1987-PRESENT: Conducted private tutorials with children and adults

1997-1999: Cheekwood Education; Nashville, TN - Provided art instruction for numerous classes, age-groups, and mediums for the Cheekwood Education Program

1998: O’More College of Design; Franklin, TN

Painting instructor at accredited design college

1996: Wilderness Adventure Company; Santa Fe, NM

Taught art to as many as thirty children, ages 6-14, per day; focus on painting and sketching

1993-4: Regional Standard Arts Project; Santa Fe, NM

Coordinated the development of curriculum for several classes for adults, including photography, found objects, and painting from the figure; established guest lecture series, featuring nationally and regionally recognized artists, collectors and business people; counseled artists on daily basis, regarding career goals, presentation, and education

1989-90: Girl’s Club of Santa Fe

Taught art in after-school program, grades K-6 

1989: Beckley Children’s Museum; Beckley, WV

Taught painting to children, ages 6-12