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March Issue 2005
Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC, Offers Works by Creighton Michael
A selection of paintings by Creighton Michael drawn from three separate series - Notation, Field and Pulse - will be featured in the fourth installment of the VantagePoint series, Creighton Michael: Patterns of Perception, at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC, on view from Mar. 12 through July 3, 2005.
In each series Michael investigates perception
and conceptual insight as he explores the way images are built
layer upon layer through the use of multiple, repetitive marks.
Living and working in New York's Hudson Valley, Michael often
finds insight and inspiration in the sensuousness of nature. Although
he references nature Michael intends that the works be "understood
as meditations (rather) than as illustrations."
Exploring the fusion of elements taken from painting, sculpture
and drawing, the artist incorporates such ideas as Surrealist
automatism, chance theory and the aesthetics of Japanese gardens.
Michael's paintings at times resemble underwater life forms, dazzling
constellations, or a complex surface membrane that hints at an
underlying structure.
In his Notation series he makes reference to both Chinese brush painting and calligraphy by comparing "the world that is seen with the world that is felt." This series of oil paintings completed in 1998, developed a "marking vocabulary" or a type of visual tempo, which is repeated in subsequent productions. These paintings are non-representational, yet the intricate surface patterning lends itself to a multitude of natural interpretations: coral reefs, markings in ice or patches of textured grass.
The subsequent Field series investigates the tension between surface texture and the illusion of space within the pictorial plane. According to Michael, the title of this series is an abbreviation for "field of vision." The inspiration for the imagery was derived, in part, from the personal experiences the artist has had with ocular migraines. During one of these episodes, Michael would see after images, spots and auras which interfered with his vision and spatial perception. He translated this physiological experience into these paintings that are constructed through repetitive markings that create the illusion of three-dimensional space.
The Pulse series, begun in 2001, uses line and gesture to create a rhythmic space. In this series Michael attempts to investigate the relationship between music, rhythm and the body. The color and composition of these monumental square canvases also suggest an interior view of the human body, perhaps the brain, which is patterned with delicate blood vessels. Michael employs a compositional maze of light and color to probe the fragile beauty that can be found between order and chaos.
Michael, who resides and works in Mt. Kisco, NY, received his MA in art history from Vanderbilt University in Nashville and an MFA in printing and multimedia from Washington University in St. Louis. He is a recipient of a Pollack Krasner Foundation grant and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. The artist will lecture about his work on Mar. 20 at 3pm in the Van Every Auditorium at the Mint Museum of Art.
The VantagePoint series is an on-going contemporary art series curated by Carla M. Hanzal at the Mint Museum of Art. Each exhibition features significant contemporary artists and explores the diverse methods and approaches employed. Other artists featured in the series to date include Julie Moos, Julie Heffernan and Elizabeth Turk. The series is supported in part by a grant from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
Also on view at the Mint is, The Harry and Mary Dalton Collection: An Anniversary Collection, featuring over 100 paintings and works on paper, on view through Mar. 20, 2005.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the museum at 704/337-2019 or at (www.mintmuseum.org).
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