ABOUT BRYAN MCFARLANE

from 2nd Annual Cecil Cooper Scholarship Exhibition Catalogue

ABOUT OLIVER MYRIE

Bryan McFarlane Fine Artist Professor Emeritus

The University Of Massachusetts, USA

Bryan McFarlane: Born in Moore Town Portland, Jamaica, studied at The Edna Manley College of Art in Kingston, Jamaica and completed his MFA Degree at Massachusetts College of Arts and Design. Upon graduation from Art School, he taught at The Edna Manley College in Kingston, Jamaica, returning as a frequent external examiner and critic over the last two decades. Since 1997, Bryan McFarlane achieved the level of ‘Tenured professor’ of Painting and Drawing at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He has led groups of students to study art in Jamaica, France and China. He was previously appointed as a Visiting Professor at the University of The West Indies, the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

McFarlane has exhibited and lectured as visiting artist at numerous universities and museums throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean: The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston; The National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston and The Museum of The National Center of African American Artists. McFarlane has received numerous awards, including the prestigious: “Silver Musgrave Medal” in the Arts, with a Citation from The Institute of Jamaica. McFarlane has works in collections nationally and internationally, including Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; the Museum of the National Center of African-American Artists, Boston; The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas; the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston; the Bank of Jamaica; the NCB collection; the Jamaica Money Market Brokers; The Bank of America; Sunshine International Museum, Beijing; the Ferry International Art Center in Beijing and Shanghai University. McFarlane continues to work in his studios in Jamaica, Boston and Beijing. McFarlane draws inspiration derived from his travels throughout China, East Asia, Turkey, West Africa, South America, Europe and the Caribbean.

Nature, ever graceful yet pragmatic, determines that the seed must die in order to germinate. So too was Cecil’s transitioning graceful and impactful - a simultaneous passing and ancestral ‘spirit resurrection’. Through his accomplishments, he has left a colossal void, but he has passed on the proverbial baton of his unique artistic force.

Cooper’s contributions continue, as manifested in this auspicious occasion at Olympia Gallery, June through July 2022. He continues, from the beyond, his duty as a culture guru with an expansive deﬁnition of what constitutes Jamaican art patronage: taking on anArtists’ role as ‘patron’ through ‘philanthropy’.

He not only accumulated wealth but continues to share its bounty. In his passing, many are simultaneously healed. He has left behind numerous paintings and drawings, which speak to an immense and inexhaustibly fascinating legacy, forever worthy of examination. His lingering presence affords opportunities to young artists without the means to receive a proper education through his ﬁnancial generosity. Therefore, he has a perpetual, exuberant presence and a spirit that possesses and lives within us all. Through him, many lives have changed and will change for the better - forever.

Cooper did his “Last Dance” (acrylic on canvas, 2003) while we were not watching. He spoke prophetically and quietly and created one of his final masterpieces, a major large-scale work as a final and profound rite of passage... a silky white dove, resting on the shoulder of the protagonist, a mark of selection - noting that the subject would shortly be at final rest, and the bird, its mission complete,

The University Of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. USA website: https://bryanmcfarlane.net