Donald Mcpartland

My work is a crisis, a visual rebellion against realistic narrative and the dissonant nature of existence. Inarticulate emotions, expressed in abstract patterns, rhythms, and forms, penetrate beyond the confines of the classically represented figure. The act of painting, for me, is a physical, visceral experience; paint clotted, smeared, wiped off, and applied with rags and my fingers over charcoal, graphite pencil drawings. My process is a chaotic, destructive hungry search for a formal resolution that remains open to the flux of discovery. Every mark is a beginning and every mark is an ending. The fragmented unfinished nature of my work evokes a sense of both loss, and continuation: life amidst death.

Master of Fine Arts 2013 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Post Baccalaureate 2011 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Bachelor of Arts 1993 Fine Art Rowan University

2024 Artist to Artist group show. 3rd Street Gallery. 610 S. 3rd Street Philadelphia. PA
2014 Small Worlds Show, The Plastic Club, Philadelphia, PA
2013 Dialogues and Correspondence, The Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2013 112th Annual Student Exhibition. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA