Tamara McLean

As an ultra-contemporary artist and seasoned creative director born in 1970, my work explores the evolving relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence. Drawing on my extensive experience as the owner of a small design agency, I bring a unique, entrepreneurial perspective to my artistic practice. I am equally comfortable working in online digital spaces to create virtual work as I am working with analog processes in physical spaces.

I translate digital processes into physical form through the materiality of metal and textiles. Merging AI-generated imagery with traditional fabrication techniques, I create sculptural and textile-based works that examine themes of identity, memory, and transformation in the digital age. My process balances technological precision with organic unpredictability, utilizing machine learning and algorithmic pattern generation alongside hand-executed craftsmanship. AI serves as both a collaborator and a disruptor in my work, generating initial forms that I then manipulate through weaving, metal etching, and structural layering. The result is a body of work that challenges the boundaries between the artificial and the handmade, the rigid and the fluid.

My aesthetic is boldly tactile and architectonic, drawing from modernist geometry, computational aesthetics, and textile traditions. The interplay between hard metals and soft fibers reflects the dualities of the digital and physical worlds, creating tension, depth, and movement within each piece. My work speaks to audiences who appreciate innovation in materiality and process-driven exploration, and I invite viewers to engage in a dialogue about authorship, authenticity, and the future of creative expression in an AI-driven world.
I am an MFA graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and hold a Master of Arts in Graphic and Web Design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.