Bio
Sean McFarland
Born: California, 1976
Lives and works in San Francisco, CA
2004 MFA, California College of the Arts
2002 BS, Humboldt State University
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Alluvial Fan, Strange Attractor, Casemore Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022 Solo Presentation, Casmore Gallery, Paris Photo, Paris France
2020 4.5 billion years a lifetime, Casemore Kirkeby, San Francisco, CA
2018 Sleeping Flowers, Unseen Amsterdam/Casemore Kirkeby, Amsterdam, NL
2017 Echo, Casemore Kirkeby, San Francisco, CA
2017 SECA Art Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2015 Sean McFarland – Project Space, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY
2014 Glass Mountains, San Francisco International Airport Museum, San Francisco, CA
2013 Glass Mountains, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Sean McFarland, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
2012 Untitled (1948-2012), Eli Ridgway Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 Viewshed, Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA
2010 Untitled Landscapes (California), Adobe Books, Backroom Gallery, San Francisco, CA (catalog)
2009 Sean McFarland - 2009 Baum Award for an Emerging American Photographer, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA (catalog)
2008 Landscape Photographs, San Francisco International Airport Museum, San Francisco, CA
2005 White Rooms, curated by Matthew Higgs, White Columns, New York, NY
2004 Photographs, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Selected Two Person Exhibitions
2014 Jake Longstreth and Sean McFarland, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Exceptional Journeys, 3 + 1 ARTE CONTEMPORANEA, Lisbon, Portugal
2012 Dreams of the Darkest Night, Works by Vanessa Marsh and Sean McFarland, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA
2010 The Sea All Around Us - James Sterling Pitt and Sean McFarland, Sight School, Oakland, CA
2009 John Chiara || Sean McFarland, curated by Karsten Lund, Swimming Pool Projects, Chicago, IL
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Fringe Practice - Alternative Methods in Photography, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle,WA
2024 Mercy, Give and Take, Casemore Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2024 How to Carry Water, Prax Art Center, University of Oregon, Corvallis, OR
2024 A Field Once More, Melrose Botanical Garden, Los Angeles, CA
2024 Sun and Moon, Tower Fine Arts & Rainbow Gallery, SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY
2023 Pyramid Scheme, Bass and Reiner, San Francisco, CA
2022 Shifting Perspectives: Landscape Photographs from the Collection, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
2022 Last Waltz, Delaplane, San Francisco, CA
2021 Ox, Child, and The River, Delaplane, San Francisco, CA
2020 Clouds, curated by Heather Shannon, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
2019 A History of Photography (The Moon), curated by Lisa Hostetler and Tracy Stuber, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
2019 Unlimited, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2018 Academic Practice | Bay Area Photography Now, Coulter Art Gallery, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
2018 Way Bay, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2017 Recollected: Photography and the Archive, Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, Curator: Sharon Bliss
2017 Insights: New Approaches to Photography Since 2000, Photofairs San Francisco, San Francisco, CA , Curator: Allie Haeusslein
2017 Blue/Print, Slide Space 123, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2016 Photography and America’s National Parks, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
2016 I Never Learned the Title of the Song I Always Sing, curated by Brion Nuda Rosch, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
2016 Art Book Show, Bass and Reiner, San Francisco, CA
2015 Signal Shift, Casemore Kirkeby, San Francisco, CA
2015 Highlights from SFAQ, SFAQ [Projects], San Francisco, CA
2015 Strata, Bass & Reiner, San Francisco, CA
2015 OUT THERE, Plug Projects, Kansas City, MO
2014 The Photographer’s Playbook, Aperture, New York, NY
2014 Not of This World, curated by Renny Pritikin, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
2014 Night, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO
2013 Sea Stories Between the Tides, Highlight Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Selected Histories, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2012 At the Edge: Recent Acquisitions, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2012 10 Artists Walk from Home, We Are Will Brown, San Francisco, CA
2012 (re)collection – A Collaboration with Lost and Found, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2011 Bay Area Now 6, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2011 BETTER A LIVE ASS THAN A DEAD LION, curated by David Kasprzak, Eli Ridgway Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 CALIFORNIA CONTINUED: New Approaches in West Coast Photography, Smith Anderson North, San Anselmo, CA
2011 The 707 Show, Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 Soil to Site, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA
2010 There’s a Way In Which…, Playspace, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 It’s My World, Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA
2010 Paper!Awesome!, curated by Brion Nuda Rosch, Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA
2010 Do I Have to Paint You a Picture?, Morgon Arcade, Cardiff, Wales
2010 Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2010 Smokebath, curated by Peter Sutherland, www.smokebath.com (book)
2009 Passport, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
2009 Hyperspaces, Park Life, San Francisco, CA
2009 One to Many, Partisan Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Lay of the Land, Reese Bullen Gallery, Humboldt State University, Arcata , CA
2009 Ersatz, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
2008 Let Us Now Praise San Francisco, curated by Robert Mailer Anderson, Marx and Zavattero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Eighteen Months, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
2008 The Secret Life of Plants, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Close Calls, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2008 From the Vault - Works from the Permanent Collection, Reese Bullen Gallery, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
2007 Albedo, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Never Been to Houston, curated by Jon Rubin, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
2007 Facts and Figures (catalog), Artwalk, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006 It's a Small World, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
2006 West Coast Windows, Samson Projects, Boston, MA
2006 Joint Venture (catalog), co-curated by Renny Pritikin and Matthias Geiger, Nelson Gallery, UC Davis, Davis, CA
2006 WHERE WE HAVE BEEN WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE GOING, Backroom Gallery, Adobe Bookshop, San Francisco, CA
2005 Altered Spaces, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN
2006 Phelan Award Exhibition, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
2005 Group Show, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 New Found Land, Priska Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY
2005 THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT, curated by Renny Pritikin, Nelson Gallery, UC Davis, Davis, CA
2005 Sprawl, Haley Martin Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Urban Echoes, Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, CA
2004 National Photography Institute Fellows' Exhibition, Columbia University, New York, NY
2004 Big Picture Show, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2004 Group Show, curated by Eleanor Harwood, Adobe Bookshop, San Francisco, CA
Awards/grants/fellowships
2017 SECA Art Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2011 The Eureka Fellowship, The Fleishhacker Foundation, CA
2009 John Gutmann Photography Fellowship
2009 Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers
2009 Kala Art Institute Fellowship and Residency, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2005 Phelan Art Award in Photography, San Francisco Foundation and SF Camerawork
2004 Fellowship, National Photography Institute, Columbia University
Residencies
2015 Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY
2015 Saltonstall Foundation, Ithaca, NY
2013 Project 387, Gualala, CA
2011 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2010 Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
Bibiliography
McFarland, Sean, “Cloud Interlude”, San Francisco Review of Whatever, Issue 1, 2025, pp. 24-25
Hotchkiss, Sarah, “A New Magazine, the ‘San Francisco Review of Whatever’, Comes to Town”, KQED, February 25, 2025, https://www.kqed.org/arts/13972308/san-francisco-review-of-whatever-magazine-issue-one
Jimerson, Erin, “Oregon State University’s PRAx showcases its first contemporary arts exhibition, ‘How to Carry Water’”, Oregon Arts Watch, November 11, 2024, https://www.orartswatch.org/oregon-state-universitys-prax-showcases-its-first-contemporary-arts-exhibition-how-to-carry-water/
“Exploring Cycles of Nature: Poems by Christopher Robin Duncan”, Client Magazine, September 3, 2024, https://www.clientmagazine.co.uk/exploring-cycles-of-nature-poems-by-christopher-robin-duncan/
Harwood, Eleanor, “Sean McFarland “Alluvial Fan, Strange Attractor” at Casemore Gallery, January 13 - March 16, 2024”, Eleanor Harwood’s Substack, February 29, 2024, https://substack.com/home/post/p-142114025
Headlands Center for the Arts, “Process + Place – The Headlands at 40”, (Sausalito, CA: Headlands Center for the Arts, 2023) pp. 266-269.
Baron, Jaimie, “’Writing’ with Light @ SF State”, Square Cylinder, March 2022, https://www.squarecylinder.com/2022/03/writing-with-light-sf-state/
Sachs, Danica, “Critic’s Pick: Sean McFarland”, Artforum, February 2020, https://www.artforum.com/picks/sean-mcfarland-82123
Robinson, Rel, “Invisible Infrastructure Guides You Through ‘Handless Operative’”, KQED Arts, May 21, 2019, https://www.kqed.org/arts/13857770/handless-operative-casemore-kirkeby
Exhibition Catalog, “UNLIMITED Recent Gifts from the William Goodman and Victoria Belco Photography Collection”, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2019
Harris, Gareth, “Millennials in mind: Unsees Amsterdam photography even temps young collectors”, The Art Newspaper, September 22, 2018, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/making-a-move-on-the-millennials-unseen-amsterdam-photography-event-tempts-younger-collectors
Bell, Adam, “Landscapes to Come”, Unseen Platform, 2018, https://unseenplatform.com/story/landscapes-to-come
Van Lynden, Emily and King, George H., “Sean McFarland”, Unseen Magazine, Issue 5, 2018, p.150
Exhibition Catalog, “UNLIMITED Recent Gifts from the William Goodman and Victoria Belco Photography Collection”, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2019
Beil, Kim, “Sean McFarland”, Artforum, October 17, 2017, http://www.artforum.com/?pn=archive&id=71353
Desmarais, Charles, “See These SF Gallery Shows Before They Close”, SFGATE, September 27, 2017, http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/See-these-SF-gallery-shows-before-they-close-12233075.php
Geith, Jenny, and Erin O’Toole, 2017 Seca Art Award, (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2017)
Desmarais, Charles, “Solid exhibition of unstable art at SFMOMA”, SFGATE, July 14, 2017, http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Solid-exhibition-of-unstable-art-at-SFMOMA-11289385.php
Whiting, Sam, “Meeting the winners of 2017 SECA Art Award at SFMOMA, SF Chronicle, June 29, 2017, http://www.sfchronicle.com/art/article/Meeting-the-winners-of-2017-SECA-Art-Award-at-11257584.php
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sean McFarland 2017 SECA Art Award Recipient, https://www.sfmoma.org/sean-mcfarland-seca-2017/
Evans, McNair, “Sean McFarland: The States Project: California, August 9, 2016, http://lenscratch.com/2016/08/sean-mcfaland-the-states-project-california-2/
Rexer, Lyle, “Photography and America’s National Parks”, Photograph , July/August 2016, http://photographmag.com/issue/julyaugust-2016/
Allen, Jamie, “Picturing America’s National Parks”, (New York: Aperture, 2016), 17.
Sutcliffe, Lisa, “Sean McFarland’s Glass Mountains”, Afterimage, Vol. 43, Nos. 1&2, pp. 34-39.
Schulman, Blair, “Dual Exhibition at PLUG Projects Explore the Cosmos”, Huffington Post, March 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blair-schulman/plug-projects-explores-th_b_6954832.html
Rafferty, Rebecca, “Theater of the Wild”, Rochester City Newspaper, March 2015, http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/theater-of-the-wild/Content?oid=2503247
Fulford, Jason, and Gregory Halpern. The Photographer’s Playbook. (New York: Aperture, 2014), 218.
Stull, Ashley, “Sean McFarland by Ashley Stull – finding landscapes in the least obvious places”, BOMB Magazine, June 2014, http://bombmagazine.org/article/1000146/sean-mcfarland
Helfand, Glen, “Sean McFarland: Glass Mountains”, Photograph, January/February 2014, http://www.photographmag.com/newsandreviews/view/293
Baker, Kenneth, “Sean McFarland: Polaroid Pictures Medium for Landscape Art”, San Francisco Chronicle, November 20, 2013, http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Sean-McFarland-Polaroid-pictures-medium-for-4996879.php
Willard Sachs, Danica, “Glass Mountains”, Art Practical, November 30, 2013, http://www.artpractical.com/review/glass-mountains/
Harrison Tedford, Matthew, “Sean McFarland: An Artist Who Found His Calling”, California College of the Arts, October, 24, 2013, https://www.cca.edu/news/2013/10/24/sean-mcfarland-artist-who-found-his-calling
McFarland, Sean, “Lightning Strike, 07.25.2013”, San Francisco Arts Quarterly (SFAQ), Fall 2013, Issue 14, pp. 67-69.
McFarland, Sean, “Pictures of the Earth”, Eli Ridgway Gallery, 2013 (catalog)
Dreams of the Darkest Night, Nelson Gallery, UC Davis (exhibition catalog)
YBCA, Video Profile: Sean McFarland's Pictures of the Earth
Pritikin, Renny, SFMOMA Open Space, ‘NOCTURNE’, August 1
Baker, Kenneth, San Francisco Chronicle, ‘Tiny photos offer a bigger vision of landscapes’, August 28, P. E1
Catalog for Joint Venture, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, UC Davis, P.16
Leaverton, Michael, and Swanhuyser, Hiya, SFWeekly, 'Night & Day', October 26 November 1, P.22-23
Orden, Abraham, Flash Art, 'Aperto San Francisco', July - September
Instant City, Issue 2, Fall Cover, P.76, 83
Nataraj, Nirmala, Artweek, 'Sprawl at Haley Martin Gallery', September, P. 17-18
Justine Sharrock, San Francisco Magazine, 'Best Eye for Talent', July, P. 92-93
1111 Journal of Literature and Art, 'Untitled Works Portfolio', Volume 2, P. 58-61
Helfand, Glen, Artforum, 'Glen Helfand on Sean McFarland', December, P. 201-202
Ansite, Katie, Kitchen Sink, 'Seeing Things: Closely from a Rooftop', issue 9, P.71-72
Bing, Alison, SFGate, September 23
Orden, Abraham, ArtNet, 'San Francisco Days'
Gagnon, Adrienne, SFWeekly, September 22, 28, P.37
Whiteside, Amber, Artweek, 'Urban Echoes: Wind, River, Trees, Clouds, Chickens and Orange' at Galeria de la Raza', September, P. 15-16
Knobel, Kyle, Record/Play, 'Interviews with four Bay Area Artists'
Selected Public Collections
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
George Eastman Museum
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington
Humboldt State University
Genentech
Milwaukee Art Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Oakland Museum
San Francisco Arts Commission / City and County of San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Stanford University
University of California Davis
Whitney Museum of American Art Library
Gallery Representation
Casemore Gallery, San Francisco, CA