PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE IN ALL MEDIA
“VALUBL OBJX”
Art by Paul McLean
Exhibit Dates: August 12-September 6
Opening reception: Saturday, August 12, 12 - 8pm
Presented by Made in Astoria | Confluence Gallery
Business Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 10AM - 5PM
1269 Commercial St
503-791-2759
astoria.handmade@gmail.com
“Event #2” | 24” x 18” | Flashe Vinyl on panel | 2021 | $2500
SUMMARY
Made in Astoria | Confluence Gallery is pleased to announce “VALUBL OBJX,” its inaugural exhibition featuring the work of Astoria-based artist Paul McLean. The show opens Saturday, August 12 and continues through September 6, in the gallery’s 1269 Commercial Street location, in the heart of Astoria’s historic downtown. Made in Astoria | Confluence Gallery will host an artist’s reception from 12-8PM, coinciding with the Astoria Second Saturday Art Walk. The artist will be present. “VALUBL OBJX” will include paintings from McLean’s “Event Series,” from the “VyNIL Cycle,” as well as smaller works on paper and other media.
ABOUT THE ART
The paintings selected for “VALUBL OBJX” are created with the vinyl paint Flashe, manufactured by the Lefranc Bourgeois company, established in Paris in 1720. According to the company’s website, “Flashe Vinyl…[l]aunched in 1954…was Europe’s first synthetic paint.” The substrates for McLean’s paintings in “VALUBL OBJX” are wood panels. All materials are archival. The series of paintings McLean will exhibit at Made in Astoria | Confluence Gallery are recent additions to his “VyNIL Cycle,” the signature project McLean launched during his stint living and working in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn, NY, in the spring of 2017, and which the artist continues to develop as his primary artistic focus, since moving to Astoria, OR, with his family in 2018.
Each painting is signed by the artist. In addition to the paintings, McLean will be exhibiting small works on a variety of traditional, quality artist or graphic paper material, and rendered using a variety of mediums, either singly or combined, such as Flashe, ink, watercolor, graphite, and colored pencils. The small drawings, studies and paintings, if not already signed, can be signed by the artist in verso at the point of sale. A small set of sculpture studies created with polymer “clay” will also be available for the exhibit. All artworks on view and for sale in “VALUBL OBJX” are unique originals. Collectors interested in other works from McLean’s VyNIL cycle of painting are encouraged to inquire about viewing options and availability with gallery personnel and the artist.
LINKS
Lefranc Bourgeois Co.: www.lefrancbourgeois.com
Paul McLean’s “VyNIL Cycle” catalog of paintings at Good Faith Space (Online): www.goodfaithspace.com
ABOUT “THE VyNIL CYCLE”
Vinyl is a ubiquitous synthetic material with many industrial applications, and is the world's third-most widely produced synthetic polymer of plastic. In its various applications and components, vinyl is integral to modern society. For multinationals like DOW and Formosa, their investors and beneficiaries, vinyl is the source of immense wealth. In its waste and disposal stages, vinyl is known to be a highly toxic material. In culture, vinyl was most notably associated with music, through the vinyl record. Other cultural references include Warhol’s film “Vinyl” (1965) and kink fashion. Artist Paul McLean has worked with vinyl throughout his career. Between 1995 and 2000, he began to use records with adhesive vinyl cut-outs for labels in installations, and to use the cut-outs in 2D works and as design elements in 4D art multimedia environments. McLean was also utilizing vinyl as a digital print substrate, extending from artist-branding projects associated with a string of exhibits in Nashville. This practice applied to solo and collective production, as well as curatorial and gallery services (e.g., Destination Gallery). By the mid-2000s, the vinyl-based elements of McLean’s diverse artistic practice was mature. For his MFA thesis work at CGU, AFH Gallery Chinatown, and for his solo show at Yarger|Strauss, McLean employed the improved production technology to create and fabricate vinyl wall sculptures, ranging from monumental to micro-scale, made possible through a key partnership with Pop Cling. In the mid-2010s, McLean learned about Flashe Vinyl paint at his local art supply store in Brooklyn, Artist & Craftsman. After some initial experiments, he determined to use this paint for an extended sequence of works. Over his forty-year evolution as a painter, McLean has worked with a tremendous variety of mediums to generate his distinctive paintings, including oils and enamels (briefly, early on, and which he abandoned because of their toxicity), watercolors and gouaches, inks, as well as tempera and encaustic, etc, sometimes employing spray paints in layers and to accentuate elements in compositions. He also experimented with a great range of varnishes, lacquers and other finishing agents, especially during his MFA studies. For many years, from the mid-80s through the mid-2010s, McLean painted primarily with acrylics on canvas, panel and paper, eventually settling on Golden and Guerra paints as go-to’s in his studio practice. What he finds most attractive in Flashe is its intense matte quality. After deciding to focus on Flashe, he refined his painting processes to optimize the paint’s unique qualities and solve challenges peculiar to the medium. This process of particularizing his studio methods involved the selection of tools (brushes) and techniques that optimized the effects obtainable in paintings made with Flashe.
The “VyNIL Cycle” has much more to it than the paint used in making the art in the sequence, which actually is a series of sequences. Following the cycle’s progression, one can recognize the artist’s concerns, from conception through the present, as indicated in the latest iterations coming out of McLean’s Astoria studio. According to McLean, “VyNIL” consists of four main series: 1) “Network;” 2) “Work Net;” 3) “Currents, Flow and Reproduction.” The “Event” series presented in “VALUBL OBJX” is a subset of the CFR series. The artist hopes to begin the fourth series, the working title of which is “Completion,” in 2024. Other “VyNIL” sub-series include “Topos,” “Meta-Elements,” “Datum,” and the early sub-sets “Weird/Wired Man,” “Glitches,” and “Petri.” In addition to the paintings, the artist has throughout the production of “VyNIL” maintained a robust drawing/small works practice, mostly consisting of studies, figurative and illustrative sketches, technical drawings, “woven forms,” and aesthetic or theoretical problem-solving exercises. At present the full inventory of “VyNIL Cycle” artworks consists of hundreds of unique pieces. McLean’s theoretical concerns underpinning “VyNIL” parallel his aesthetic, technological, media and philosophical research projects and interests, which he encapsulates in the phrase “4D systems.” While the artist aspires to create objects that appeal to and inspire anyone, regardless of their level of visual literacy, he intentionally infuses his paintings with an awareness of the traditions that constitute Art through the present moment, which he identifies as “The Post-Contemporary Period,” in tandem with the ideas of notable artist-thinkers like Liam Gillick. McLean’s art reflects and demonstrates a lifetime devoted to the study of technical art history, as well as aesthetic theory, criticism and writing, movements and patterns. He is a student of the technologies — past, present (and future) — that shape our conception and perception of art. McLean traces the vital links that conjoin the creativity of tribal people to the products of our imagination today. Through the lens of media and the interventions of the latest technologies, McLean sees a dynamic scenario unfolding, one in which art still plays a key role in shaping how we view ourselves and the world(s) we inhabit. In the “VyNIL Cycle” the artist is alternately reacting to an ongoing, systematic analysis of object and subject, wrestling with the new media designations of “content” and “context,” and responding to what’s happening now in our lives (politically, economically, socially). With original images that address meaning, values, truth and beauty, as art-based transmissions to be received by a viewer, McLean is proposing a way forward for art, connecting to our common instincts for survival, while setting aside the conflicts that threaten us all, existentially. His speculation is directed at and arises from the inherently human act of daily creation. McLean believes that what we communicate, and how we do it, are equally important aspects in art and creativity. The human fixation on The Thing and on things generically, McLean suggests, is intertwined with our experiences and the immaterial aspects of life (not-things). In his paintings McLean endeavors to address both, to synthesize the binary of positivity and negation, as art, complex and dimensional in its image of and within nature and the idea of the Natural. How else can we universally come to terms with the Artificial? he wonders.
McLean does not at all expect a viewer to immediately react to his paintings with complex critiques, although that happens. On the contrary, most viewers respond initially, viscerally, to the striking colors, dynamic compositions, and the overall effusive qualities of his art. Then, they notice the precision and care with which the pictures are rendered, which is to say, their obvious artistry. On further inspection, a viewer might notice how McLean’s paintings echo other, might be reminded of artworks with which they are familiar, and hopefully they admire. At that critical juncture, an exhibit such as “VALUBL OBJX” can become a pleasurable conversation-starter, a point of departure for expanding our common appreciation of art. McLean identifies this event to be one of the gifts art provides the community, and hopes the show at Made in Astoria | Confluence Gallery offers just such an opportunity for the exchange of reflections and revelations.
[Credit: Milo Santini]
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Paul McLean is an artist, writer, thinker and educator whose career spans four decades. His primary research focuses on dimensional systems and creative applications. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, holds Masters degrees in Fine Arts and Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University/the Drucker-Ito School of Management, studied at Columbia Teachers College and the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. McLean has exhibited in galleries and museums, academic institutions, arts foundations and alternative arts venues in the United States and abroad. These include Timothy Yarger (Beverly Hills), SLAG Contemporary (Bushwick, NYC), David Lusk (Nashville), Parthenon and Cheekwood Museums (Nashville), St. Edwards University (Austin), An Tuirreann Arts Center (Isle of Skye, Scotland). McLean’s collective projects include DddD + 01 (Nashville), Art for Humans Gallery Chinatown (LA), Gramatica Parda (ANDLAB, LA), Good Faith Space (Brooklyn), “Wall Street to Main Street” (Catskill, NY), “Low Lives: Occupy” (Hemispheric Institute, NYU), “Eureka!” (CA) and others. McLean has participated in numerous panels, residencies and lecture series, including programs hosted by the Living Theater (NYC), Chashama (NY), Morris Graves Residency + Ink People Center for the Arts and (CA), WESTAF’s first virtual forum on the state of arts in America. He has published writings with Brooklyn Rail and ArtInfo, hosted art radio programs in Santa Fe and Nashville, and been featured in or interviewed by the Arts Newspaper, Artnet, LA Times, Mutual Arts and other periodicals. McLean has been a visiting artist at the School of Visual Arts and New York Studio School, among others. McLean’s work is held in numerous collections, including the New Museum/Rhizome ArtBase, King County Hospital (Seattle) and Morris Graves Foundation (CA). He has produced many virtual or net.art projects, presented via AFH platforms, Art for Humans dot com, the AFH Tumblr Array, Mystic Novad, 4dPOP, AFH Blog and through AFH social media streams (MySpace, Facebook, Instagram, etc.). Large samples of his still and moving images can be found archived at AFH Flickr and YouTube. McLean has been based in Astoria, Oregon since 2018.
ARTIST STATEMENT
A friend once shared with me this provocation: “The worst thing that ever happened to me, never happened to me.” Maybe this idea is less that than a riddle — more a proposal, a conjecture or speculation, a transmission designed to evoke in the receiver some possibly warranted suspicion or skepticism about the nature of memory, the formation of identity and the power of narratives, whether accurate or invented.
When the French philosopher Baudrillard suggested in “The Spirit of Terrorism” that 9/11 did not happen, few of those who aggressively and reflexively condemned him for doing so seemed at all interested in considering at depth the nuanced, even prophetic, argument Baudrillard attached to his troubling assessment of our collective capacity to discern the true from the false. He asked, “How do things stand with the real event, then, if reality is everywhere infiltrated by images, virtuality and fiction?”*
In the two decades since, our agreement on the real has fractured and evaporated. “Fake News,” AI and other interventions have subverted the common discourse and interpretations of the visible world and our perception of it. Badiou reminds us in Being and Event that Mallarme, in his final profound poetic act, “A Throw of the Dice,” formidably embodied our destabilized condition a century before it unfolded. The visionary 19th Century French poet foresaw our present day confusion and anxiety, as we struggle to find perceptual solid ground “in these latitudes of indeterminate waves in which all reality dissolves.”
In the background, we ought to consider Event, and our accepted use of the term, with its various definitions and usages. In the physics of relativity, for instance, an event is a point in spacetime. We might assume that at every such point, since the Beginning of everything, that something eventful must be happening. No one has proven anything about what preceded everything, but the notion that nothing existed prior to everything has its many advocates. At minimum, the event and Void can be thought of as having a binary quality in their relation, the event being positive, the Void its total negation, like a one and zero.
Advances in media have shown us that one’s ability to decide what actually occurs is a function of viewer angle, the presence of obstacles blocking a clear view, and other factors. Anyone who watches sports that employ instant replay understands the limits of the camera and witness or referee to determine optically irrefutable veracity. No matter how sophisticated the technology, it can be a challenge to confirm any action in complex situations, in real time and space, as a fact. We have also become privy to the distortions of “facts” made possible through processing, by human editor or algorithm. Do you recall the first time you saw a quality “deep fake?” Do you know about the Fakespot analyzer (LoL)? More directly to the point: The superimposition of ideology on data is one of our most worrisome concerns, in the post-contemporary period. Here, the question touches or turns on the political, and the economic, where they can be influenced by media power. The question is whether democracy is viable, if truth in communication is impossible. Art is a platform for confronting this question, on another pretext. The good news is that art is its own — proven — media and technology.
∞
My Event series in the VyNIL cycle of paintings exists in an autonomous dimension, apart from the current developments, cryptically circumscribed above, which remain, in their disposition to art, purely and simply, contextual. To title paintings “Event” and to enumerate them is little more than a gesture, an invitation and a prompt. Art, as an apex in the free speech continuum, has a vital function to spark discourse, connected and bound to art’s own oral traditions. A painting is a Thing, an object, to which a subject(-ivity) can be attached. My paintings “declare” themselves, as themselves, as such. On one level, they exist complete, absent contextualization of any and every kind. I may say they are in themselves liberated from narrative pre-conditions or circumstances, as illustrated by their very being, but my saying so is practically irrelevant. If I, as “the artist,” on the other hand, acknowledge the tradition of art in its historicity, inherently dependent on space and time, and countless other contingencies, for meaning and value, and I argue that my art belongs to that loosely defined art tradition, perhaps my acknowledgment is of some relevance — but only as evidence of my own subjectivity, inclusive of bias and affinity. What if I, as artist, contend that art created outside the circle of content and context is possibly not art at all, and something else? But I, as artist, follow by suggesting that in either or both cases the commonality in all arts is the kernel, the pearl, of human expression? Our relentless urge to express ourselves, as being in the world. Which in a certain way of seeing things indicates a commons only limited by the immediate extent of our shared sense of ourselves as humans? We recognize art as such by its conception and properties of continuation, juxtaposed against our finitude, our mortality. And that this is what binds one to the other. Is this juxtaposition rooted in a true or false equivalence (life = death)? That is what we are determined to find out. That is the mission, the objective of art and artist, and all who turn to face them (art and artist), as their and our wrangling with the challenges of Vision muddles on. Ultimately, art itself, any art, is one answer to the question, “What is art?” Anyone can answer the question, “Who is an artist?” with “I am” or “You are” or “So-and-so is.” And anyone can exclaim, “No, not so!” If one asks, “What is art for?” then we can have a conversation, because there are many true and false answers for that one. Maybe in one of those answers we might find ourselves and to whom and what we belong. In which case, another world is possible.
* Baudrillard continues: “In the present case (9/11), we thought we had seen (perhaps with a certain relief) a resurgence of the real, and of the violence of the real, in an allegedly virtual universe. ‘There’s an end to all your talk about the virtual — this is something real!’ Similarly, it was possible to see this as a resurrection of history beyond its proclaimed end. But does reality actually outstrip fiction? If it seems to do so, this is because it has absorbed fictions’s energy, and has itself become fiction. We might almost say that reality is jealous of fiction, that the real is jealous of the image. …It is a kind of duel between them, a contest to see which can be the most unimaginable.”
6” x 4” show card [PJM]
17” x 11” show poster [PJM]
The artist, circa 1997 (Photo: Rebecca Walk)
CURRICULUM VITAE
PAUL McLEAN
725 11th Street, Astoria, OR 11237
(615) 491-7285
artforhumans@gmail.com
WEB LINKS AND PROJECTS
AFH nexus: www.mysticnovad.com
Online catalog for “VyNIL Cycle”: www.goodfaithspace.com
AFH still image archive: www.flickr.com/photos/artforhumans/sets
AFH moving image archive: www.youtube.com/artforhumans
AFH Instagram: www.instagram.com/valubl
AFH Facebook: www.facebook.com/artforhumans
[Additional materials]
Original AFH platform: www.artforhumans.com
Application site for Oxford/Ruskin SoA portfolio + texts: www.ox4dafh.com
OwA archive + documentation: www.4Dpop.com
AFH Tumblr Array (list, circa 2012): www.artforhumans.com/tumblr/BLOGLIST.html
[More on request]
EDUCATION
2009-2022: Ph.D. Media and Communications research candidate, European Graduate School, Saas Fee, Switzerland
2017: Columbia Teachers College CTC summer intensive course
2008 M.A., Arts & Cultural Management, Drucker School of Management, 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
Between 2018 and 2023, in response to the pandemic and other logistical actualities, I shifted most of my exhibition practice to web platforms. During that five year period, I produced two dozen+ virtual exhibits and published them on AFH social media (Instagram, Facebook), on Medium, with mirror versions in most cases at AFH sites Mystic Novad, artforhumans [dot] com, 4Dpop, etc. These online projects include: mini-retrospectives with critical elements; archive-based series; original content with durational/object components; and documentation of new and old material with added context. The following is a selected list of show titles:
CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT: Photography by Paul McLean [1997-2008]
END OF THE WEST [2018-23]
YROMEM: Laptop Artifacts [2005-22]
A FAIR: Art Basel | Miami Beach [2010]
Blurry MoMA [2010]
AFH Studio [2010-11]
MATTERHORN PROJECT 2022
ROAD TRIP 2009: California to West Virginia
BEING 20 IN 1984: Hindsight in 2020
The FIRE Consumes a Thing
GasMask Guy
AFHGC
REMEMBER: Samples from the OwA Photo Archive
Inside > Outside REVISITED
.txt ~img: POST-STORAGE
CONTEXT: A MATTERHORN PROJECT; Junk Photography [2014-18]
WOVENFORM [Shipwreck]
HRMNUTIK-POLY-INK [Code Duello]
PROJECT LAUNCH [Home Show (Online)]
ART FOR HUMANS [2000-2018]
END-START (@Good Faith Space)
YONDER
SELFIE
2023: “VALUBL OBJX,” Made in Astoria | Confluence Gallery, Astoria, OR
2019: “Home Show,” Astoria, OR
2018: “4D VyNIL,” AFH Studio BK, Williamsburg/Brooklyn, NYC, NY
2016: “For Paris,” Wild Heart Salon, Bushwick/Brooklyn, NYC, NY
2014: “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 and AFH Tumblr/Ning network] “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 (Timothy Yarger Fine 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; “Dress Rehearsal,” Art for Humans; “Little Girl,” Art for Humans; “Corrupted,” Art for Humans; “Digital Prints form Seam,” Art for Humans ; “Snowhaus,” Art for Humans; “Solace,” Art for Humans
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; “Little Girl,” Art for Humans; “Lightboxes,” Art for Humans; “Haunted,” Art for Humans; “Prick,” Art for Humans; “RX,” Art for Humans; “Creativity Pays ,“ Art for Humans; “Incidence,” Art for Humans; “Road Show 2: Afterburn,” Art for Humans; “Music for the Mind,” Art for Humans; “Skin and Ink,” Art for Humans; “Road Show,” Art for Humans; “Opening Credits,” Art for Humans; “Conversations at TAG,” Art for Humans; “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, Nashville, TN; “15 FPS Part 1,” multimedia presentation for FilmNashville (NFVA), Citation Soundstage, Nashville, TN, “Jewels of the Nagas,” Yoga Source, Nashville, TN
2000: “The Hunger & the Feast,” commissioned installation, Virago, Nashville, TN; “Windows to the World” (01) Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery, Nashville, TN; “Heartless 01” (01) J&J’s Café & Market (multimedia installation), 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
2016: “OAS 2.0 + NOVAD @Magic Valley,” a post-Occupy communa near Denver, NY
2011-15: Arts in Bushwick/Bushwick Open Studio Tour, including: “Kill Your Smart Phone (KYSP),” “Artist Zoo,” “Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence (1 & 2),” with collaborators Shane Kennedy, Fletcher Liegerot and others; plus AiB/BOS group show/auction for Arts in Bushwick, and preview expositions for “Old Hick” and “Dim Tim” cycles of paintings + media
2014: “Opening,” David Lusk Gallery – Nashville, TN; “The Price Is Right,” David Lusk Gallery – Nashville, TN
2013: Lead Artist of Good Faith Space (at Standard ToyKraft), hosting exhibits of Dane Rex, Wilson Novitzki, Shane Kennedy, the Voyage of the Hippo (Kennedy & Clemens Poole), Jez Bold's Novad Library and performances, lectures and group shows featuring Novitzki, Eric Leiser, Sebastian Gladstone, Ambrose Curry III, Jakey Begin, Konstant, Ashley Strout and others, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
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 (BJ Spoke Gallery and Center for Cinema Arts), Yoko Ono “Wish Tree for Zuccotti Park” + more…
2012: “MIC CHECK: OCCUPY,” Sideshow Gallery (Williamsburg/Brooklyn-NYC)
2011: “A New Dimension,” Silvershed (Chelsea-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 (Sponsored by Morris Graves Foundation)
2002:”Fire…,” Bohan, 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: “Inside>Outside” (DddD) Parthenon Museum, Nashville, TN; “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), Nashville, TN; “D.I.G. Through III,” Downtown Presbyterian Church, Nashville, TN (Best of Show Award); “Home Show,” private residence, Nashville, TN; “Sensing Change,” ArtSynergy, Nashville, TN; “Artwork, Movie Stills, Sets,” Ground Zero, Nashville, TN
1999: “Sirens & Conflagrations” (DddD) Cheekwood Museum/Temporary Contemporary, Nashville, TN; “In Sickness & In Health” (DddD) In the Gallery, 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,” 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, 2008-9, Timothy Yarger Fine Art
NADA Miami, FL 2008-9, 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, Beckley, WV
Demetria Kalodimos, 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
I have produced many artist books and exhibit-related publications in digital and analog media, in many formats. Contact for directions + access to samples, including and in addition to those listed below. - PJM
“Astoria-based artist's work delves into technology” by Alyssa Evans The Astorian (2021) - LINK > https://www.dailyastorian.com/life/weekend-break-astoria-based-artists-work-delves-into-technology/article_0863ed58-76f9-11eb-acfa-6f5995f66e89.html
NOVAD End of the World MEGAzine, No. 1, Vol. Ø: Graphic design, content, pre-production, production management, web launch, etc. [Dec. 2012]
[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.
Between 2000-14 Paul McLean published one of the most highly trafficked network of artist blogs in the world, including the now-defunct AFH Blog and AFH Myspace Blog, an array of three dozen Tumblr blogs, and more. The network published over 10000 posts, generated millions of hits and hundreds of thousands of 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. AFHGC received many acknowledgements in webzines & artblogs around the wired world.
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)
RESIDENCIES
2013
chanorth/chashama [Pine Plains, NY]
2012
Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus [Bushwick/Brooklyn/NYC]
Spatial Occupation of 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. In 2012 McLean appeared with Judith Molina at Living Theatre in a discussion on Paul Goodman.
2011-12: Co-organizer of Occupy with Art/Occupennial [Which, in the context of OWS/Arts & Culture, I contend is the most profound free radical, experimental 4D art production in history – despite the near-total “art world” erasure of it (all) from the art historical discourse. With some exceptions... Occupy Museums will be included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Two of the five members of the OM collective, Arthur Polenta and Imani Jacqueline Brown, participated in OwA projects, including “Wall Street to Main Street.” - PJM]
2006-Present: Produced or many online collectives using social media, 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, Los Angeles, 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 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: Destination Gallery at First Union Tower, 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
1995-6: 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
1993: 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
1992-3: 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
1989: Old World Tile, Santa Fe, NM: Assisted master tile-setter Juan Lopez installing 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
1989-91: 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
1990-91: 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
I took on Shane Kennedy as apprentice (7-year program), in 2000. After Shane completed his initial training (in AFHGC/2008), we continued to collaborate on projects, through the 2019. - PJM
2012: Co-Founded the Occupational Art School with Christopher Moylan and Jenjoy Roybal. OAS was initially presented as a 4D exhibit at Co-Lab in Austin, TX. The second phase took form as a residency at Bat Haus in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY. OAS hosted presentations by Novads/OWS Arts & Culture Anarchive, Eric Leiser, Liv Mette Larsen, Joe Riley and Audrey Snyder, Voyage of the Hippo I, Lavinia Nannini, and many others. OAS also generated outside projects such as the New Ergonomics toroidal drawing workshop (Instructor: Chris Moffett at Chashama/Harlem), a tour of Bushwick street art by Bushwick Collective founder Joe Ficalora, a 4D media/reading “Men Who Work Under the Ground” at Human Relations Bookstore featuring Moffett, Blake Seidenshaw, Ben Nadler and Amelia Winger-Bearskin, “Starr Street Slam,” a reading event with Brooklyn Rail (featuring DisciplineAriel, Winger-Bearskin, Ted Hamm, Barbara Browning, Doug Cordell, Corey Eastwood, Konstant and Paul McLean), presentations at University of Massachusetts and Black Mountain College (in conjunction with Buckminster Fuller Institute) and more.
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, plus “4D Aesthetics for Community Arts Projects and Community Artists” lecture at Shady Tree Studios, for Pump Projects, Austin, TX
2003: Lectured at Parsons New School of Art to graduate students on “The 4D Artist & Applied Aesthetics”
1987-2003: 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
PERFORMANCE AND MOVING IMAGE
Paul McLean has performed poetry at many venues, including the Bowery Poetry Club, NY. His DDDD/01 music/spoken word projects were recorded by King Williams at the Universal Music Group singer-songwriter studio and Robert Solomon at Woodland Studios in Nashville, TN. McLean has produced over 200 moving image works for 4D/actual and virtual exhibit environments, since 2000, integrating original, appropriated and found sound/music/spoken word with digital cell-animations, photo-montage, 8- and 16mm film and a range of video formats. He has worked with many great musicians over the years, including Sharon Gilchrist, Jerry Dale McFadden, Roy-El Wooten, Michael Kott, Jeff Coffin, and Max Abrams.
