A Golden Guide

Rendered in the flat, saturated palette of mid-century field guide illustration, Tyler McPhee’s window installation, A Golden Guide, catalogs the botany of altered states, each specimen labeled with the deadpan authority of a scientific plate, repositioning their clinical illustrations as tangible forms, portals between observation and hallucination.

Tyler McPhee‘s practice explores the transient potential of altered states—induced by psychedelics, meditation, or other means—as a distinct form of knowing. Working across drawing, photography, video, and sculpture, he captures the ephemeral nature of perception, engaging myth-making as both method and subject: transmuting private experiences into shared symbols, and attempting to reveal what ordinary consciousness leaves unseen.

Born in Portland, Maine, Tyler McPhee received his undergraduate education in Philosophy from the University of Maine and his MFA in sculpture from Syracuse University. He was also participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

His work has been shown at the MoMA Studio, Contemporary ATX Austin, Real Art Ways, MassMoCA, Powerplant Gallery, Napoleon – Philadelphia, and Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum in Berlin, Germany. He has received awards from Mayer Foundation, Albert K. Murray Fine Arts Fund, Kittredge Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education.  

Previously, he was an artist-in-residence at Mildred’s Lane, École Nationale d’Arts Paris – Cergy, Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum and the Lighthouse Works Artist Residency on Fisher’s Island, New York. He lives and works between New York and Portland, Maine.