Peter McFarlane is a Canadian sculptor and mixed media artist whose work transforms discarded objects into complex visual philosophies. Based on Salt Spring Island, he has spent decades mining the material overflow of contemporary life—landfill, e-waste, broken tools, scrap metal—and turning “garbage” into intricate, often poetic reflections on value, memory, and imagination.

McFarlane studied at York University (BFA, 1982) and continued his development at the Banff Centre on scholarship from 1982 to 1984. Early on, he gravitated toward conceptually oriented sculpture, installation, and drawing, and quickly recognized the power of found materials. Obsolete circuit boards, cast-off industrial components, and household debris became his vocabulary.

“I’ve always had a voracious imagination and a driving desire to make things,” he notes. “To me, garbage and waste are just a lack of imagination.” For McFarlane, discarded objects narrow the infinite possibilities of art-making into a manageable, meaningful set of constraints. Each chosen item arrives with a history: its previous use, its wear, its scars of consumption. In his hands, these objects undergo a “restoration” of sorts—removed from one environment, placed into another, and reconfigured so that old meanings are broken, renegotiated, and layered with new ones.

He often describes this as transforming “landscrap” into landscape, or recycling objects and meaning at the same time. The smallest strand of scrap wire can carry metaphorical weight if properly placed. His works operate as visual essays on excess, consumerism, time, and memory—inviting viewers to question what is truly disposable.

McFarlane’s career spans solo and group exhibitions across the country and internationally: from early shows in Toronto (Gallery 1313, DeLeon White Gallery, Canadian Sculpture Centre) to major exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, MacLaren Art Centre, and recurring shows with Pegasus Gallery and Steffich Fine Art on Salt Spring Island, as well as Canada House in Banff and other venues. His work has appeared in the Salt Spring National Art Prize and the Parallel Art Show (SNAP), where he has received Viewers’ Choice awards.

His sculptures and installations are held in public, corporate, and private collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank, Ontario Science Centre, and various corporate collections in Canada and abroad. McFarlane’s practice has been widely documented in print and media—from Orion Magazine, Woven Tale Press, and Galleries West to international design and art platforms, TV interviews, and a 30-minute documentary.

Though his work cannot materially dent global waste, McFarlane sees it as a symbolic attempt to slow the process down—to pause, reconsider, and re-envision what we have left behind but not forgotten.

“I am a conceptually based sculptor and mixed media artist. Most of my materials are discarded or obsolete objects—circuit boards, broken tools, industrial scrap—that arrive already loaded with history. I reorganize and reconstruct these fragments to free them from their previous functions and open them to new meaning. For me, garbage and waste are simply a lack of imagination; each object has the potential to become a metaphor. In re-using these materials, I’m not solving the problem of waste, but I am symbolically slowing it down and asking viewers to reconsider what, and who, we throw away.”

You don’t want the whole epic on the product page, so here’s a clean, skimmable CV summary:

Education

• Banff Centre, Scholarship Program, 1982–1984
  
• York University, BFA, 1982
  

Exhibitions (Recent)

• Out of the Fire: Metal Workers Along the Salish Sea, Steffich Fine Art, 2022
  
• Parallel/SNAP Winners Shows, Pendulum Gallery (Vancouver) & Victoria Arts Council, 2022
  
• Parallel Art Show (SNAP), Viewers’ Choice Award, Salt Spring Island, 2021
  
• Steel and Stone (two-person), Steffich Fine Art, 2020
  
• Shiny Steel, Steffich Fine Art, 2019
  
• JOY and 40th Anniversary Exhibitions, Canada House Gallery, Banff, 2013–2018
  
• Multiple solo and group shows at Pegasus Gallery (Salt Spring), Art Gallery of Peterborough, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, MacLaren Art Centre, Loop Gallery (Toronto), and others (1990s–2010s)
  

Collections (Selection)

• Canada Council Art Bank
  
• Ontario Science Centre
  
• Banff Centre
  
• Royal Bank
  
• CIBC Wood Gundy
  
• Shaw Communications
  
• Salt Spring Fire Department
  
• Various corporate and private collections in Canada and internationally
  

Media & Publications (Selection)

• Out Of The Fire – Metal Workers Along The Salish Sea, 2022
  
• Features in Orion Magazine, Woven Tale Press, Galleries West, Make Magazine, Colossal, Design Taxi, and others
  
• 30-minute documentary by The Directors Film Company Ltd. (2002)
  
• Reviews in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and various regional publications