Tanner MacArthur

Tanner MacArthur is an artist and curator working between Milwaukee, WI and Brooklyn, NY. He received a B.A. in Studio Art from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, and an M.F.A. in Art from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. His work explores connections between urban disorder, bricolage, and traditional modes of abstraction. MacArthur has exhibited work at national and regional spaces including the Museum of Wisconsin Art, the Trout Museum of Art, Real Tinsel, No Instructions Gallery, Portrait Society Gallery, and the Door County Contemporary Art Fair. He is director of the H. F. Johnson Gallery at Carthage College, co-director of Addendum Gallery in Milwaukee, WI, and Lecturer at UW - Milwaukee. 

Tanner MacArthur constructs assemblages that emerge at the intersection of painting and sculpture. His work is influenced by constructivism, bricolage, folk architecture, and tactical urbanism. Familiar visual cues from civic spaces, like construction stripes, reflective surfaces, and industrial hardware, reappear as motifs linking the works to shared daily experiences. Central to his practice is a tension between order and entropy. The works balance precision with improvisation. Traditional painting surfaces and color fields assert control, while found material  and irregular textures introduce spontaneity and awkwardness. MacArthur studies how disparate materials, histories, and visual systems can be brought into new conversations.