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The Flying Eye Alex S. MacLean’s (*1947) pictures have something healing about them. They bring to order to what seems at ground level chaotic. The photographer has seen nearly all of the US and Europe from above and shows us the structures of Western lifestyle, told as an overview of growth and decay, of planting and harvesting, of… Read more
Intro Bio Exhibitions
IntroductionThe Flying Eye
Alex S. MacLean’s (*1947) pictures have something healing about them. They bring to order to what seems at ground level chaotic. The photographer has seen nearly all of the US and Europe from above and shows us the structures of Western lifestyle, told as an overview of growth and decay, of planting and harvesting, of our need to be motorized and on the move and how such a course ends. The abstract concept of spatial order makes sense with the advantage of a bird’s-eye view. MacLean reveals the difference between the natural and the constructed aspects of the environment and most recently took photos of aspects of climate change, taking us with each image to a place we think we know but have never seen like this.
MacLean is a trained architect whose excellent sense of space also qualifies him beyond that field, particularly in landscape architecture. Over the last years he has published numerous collections of photos; his works have been shown across the US, including at the AIPAD Show Miami, as well as extensively at the Arles photo festival. He keeps a studio in Cambridge and lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts.Bio
1969 Harvard College, B.A. 1973 Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Master in Architecture 1975 Commercial Pilot License Studion in Cambridge lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA Awards
2006 Boston Society of Landscape Architects: Award of Excellence 2004-2003 American Academy in Rome: Awarded the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture for 2003-2004 2003 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts: Grant Recipient, "The Urban Edge: Aerial Illustrations of Contemporary European Growth Patterns" 2002 Kansas City Design Center: First recipient of the Center's resident design fellowship. Participant in project entitled "Sustaining a Sense of Region: Civic Dialogues on Ecology, Urbanism, and Metropolitan Growth" Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: Grant Recipient, "Visualizing Density", Joint Research Project with Julie Campoli, Landscape Architect 1997 The American Institute of Architects: Eighth Annual Citation for Excellence in International Architecture Book Publishing awarded to "Taking Measures Across the American Landscape" The American Society of Landscape Architects: Honor Award in Communications bestowed upon "Taking Measures Across the American Landscape" Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts: Grant Recipient, "The Relation of Inner Cities and Outer Cities between New Haven, CT and New York City", Joint Research Project with Dolores Hayden, Yale University School of Architecture Professor of Architecture and Urbanism and Professor of American Studies 1995 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts: Grant Recipient, "Historical and Contemporary Land Patterns in Vermont", Research and Development for Exhibit and Book Project Eleventh Annual American Photography Competition: Certificate of Excellence 1994 Seaside Institute, Escape to Create Program: Artist in Residence 1992 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts: Grant Recipient, "Taking Measures Across the American Landscape", Exhibit and Book Project 1990-1992 National Endowment for the Arts Design Grant: Co-principal Investigator in affiliation with the University of Pennsylvania Department of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Registration Project 1989/1979 The Massachusetts Art Fellowship Program: Finalist 1988 Artists' Liaison Exhibition: Finalist 1985 Massachusetts One Percent for Arts Program: Grant Recipient, Madonna Hall Commission 1980-1981 National Endowment for the Arts Design Grant: Demonstration project exploring the uses of aerial photography for urban planning 1980 Ossabaw Foundation: Project Member Collections3M Corporation
American Bell
Arthur Anderson and Company
Bank of America
Banque Nationale de Paris
Chase Manhattan Bank
Citibank, N.A.
Consolidated Freight
Dean Witter Reynolds
DeCordova Museum
Dunn and Bradstreet
Federal Express
Federal Reserve Bank, Boston
Fidelity Investments
First Boston
Fleet Bank, Boston
GTE
George H. W. Bush Library
Goldman Sachs
Dudley and G. Herschbach
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
IBM
Merrill Lynch and Company
Metropolitan Life
Museum of Contemp.Photo., Chicago
North Dakota Museum of Art
Northrop Corporation
NYNEX
Progressive Companies
J. P. Morgan
Reliance Holding Group
Security Pacific Bank
Smith Barney
Steven Spielberg
Texaco
Texas Instruments
Citizen's Bank, USA
Institut d’art Contemporain
Jean-Pierre Michaux
Jean Louis Maubant
Centre Pompidou
Arthur & Trudy Golden
Centro Andaluz de Arte ContemporaneoExhibitionsSolo Exhibitions
2007 American Artifacts, Gallery Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris, France Wellesley College, Horticulture Visitor Center, Wellesley, MA, USA 2006 Italian and French Landscapes, Panopticon Gallery of Photography, Waltham, MA, USA 2005 Airlines, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, USA
2003 Patterns on the Land, Gallery Katz, Boston, MA, USA Kansas City Design Center: Towards the Horizon, Commerce Trust Gallery, Kansas City, MO, USA Panopticon Gallery of Photography, Waltham, MA, USA Americaland, BETC Euro RSCG with the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Paris, France 2002 Play in America Seen from the Sky, Les Rencontres d’Arles 33rd Annual International Photo Festival, Arles, France Urbanscapes, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Perspectives, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Boston, MA, USA 2001 American Institute of Architects (local chapter), Dallas, TX, USA 2000 From Above: Photographs of Houston, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, USA 1997 Taking Measures Across the American Landscape, Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA 1994 Aerial Landscapes, Seaside Institute, Seaside, FL, USA 1993 Aerial Landscapes, Boston Society of Architects, Boston, MA, USA Looking at the Land, Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC, USA Aerial Perspectives, Lincoln Library, Lincoln, MA, USA 1990 From the Air, Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC, USA 1988 Bell Ross Gallery, Memphis, TN, USA 1987 Bain and Company, Boston, MA, USA 1986 Currier House, Radcliffe College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 1984 Bank of America Office Headquarters, San Francisco, CA, USA San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA, USA 1980 Panopticon Gallery of Photography, Boston, MA, USA 1978 Alfred Stieglitz Gallery, New York, NY, USA Baker Library, Harvard University Business School, Cambridge, MA, USA 1977 North Street Gallery, Boston, MA, USA Group Exhibitions
2007 Italian Atlas 2007 Portrait of a Changing Italy, National Museum of the XXI Century, Rome, Italy Moving Through New England, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, USA TO FLY: Contemporary Aerial Photography, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA, USA 2006 Painters of Modern Life: Donation – The Caisse des Depots, Photographic Collection, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (is now part of the permanent collection of the Musee national d’art moderne) Looking at the Landscape: Environmental Puzzles from Three Photographers, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, MA, USA 2005 Les temps des lumieres, Nancy, France Manufactured Self, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Il, USA 2004 Inhabiting the World, Forum Universal de les Cultures, Barcelona, Spain Shock and Awe, Art Works for the Earth, New Orleans, LA, USA Landscapes, Issabella/Brancolini Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy Structure; Architecture in Photography, Gallery Katz, Boston, MA, USA Shrinking Cities, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany 2002 Water: An Exhibition of Photography by ASMP New England Photographers, Akillian Gallery at Massasoit Community College, Canton, MA, USA 2001 Mutations: Événement Culturel sur la Ville Contemporaine, Arc en Rêve Centre d’Architecture, Brussels, Belgium Landscapes Seen and Imagined: Sense of Place and Water: Photographs from the Permanent Collection, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, USA 2000 Mutations: Événement Culturel sur la Ville Contemporaine, Arc en Rêve Centre d’Architecture, Bordeaux, France
1999 The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life, The Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, Québec, Canada 1998 Drive-Ins: Disappearing Summer Cinema, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY, USA Post-Pastoral: New Images of the New England Landscape, The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA Water, Water, Everywhere . . . and Not a Drop to Drink, Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA Ground Control, Lombard/Fried Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
1997 Let It Snow!, Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA Aerial Perspectives: Imagination, Reality and Abstraction, D.C. Moore Gallery, New York, NY, USA Lasting Impressions: Looking at the Land, The New Art Center in Newton, Newtonville, MA, USA 1996 The DeCordova Collects Photographs: Recent Acquisitions, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, USA Silver Traces, The Boston Photo Collaborative, Boston, MA, USA 1993 Taking Measures Across the American Landscape, University of Pennsylvania, School of Landscape Architecture, Philadelphia, PA, USA Taking Measures Across the American Landscape, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, USA 1991 Good Sports: Art and the Athlete, Nutrilite Exhibit, Buena Park, CA, USA 1990 Images of New England, The Wrubel Gallery, Concord, MA, USA 1989 In Search of the American Experience, Museum of the National Arts Foundation, New York, NY, USA 1988 Aerial Views of the Landscape, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, USA 1987 The Edge of Perception, Gensler and Associates/Architects, Los Angeles, CA, USA Skyborne: Aerial Photography, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND, USA 1986 One Percent for Art and the Rebirth of Madonna Hall, The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, USA 1984 Urban Landscapes, Wilhelm Gallery, Houston, TX, USA Highlights from the Bank of America Collection, Bank of America Office Headquarters, San Francisco, CA, USA 1983 H20, Pan American Building, New York, NY, USA (Museum of Modern Art Advisory Service, curator)
Contemporary Landscapes, Freeport McMoran, New York, NY, USA (Museum of Modern Art Advisory Service, curator)
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