BIRTHPLACE:   Calgary, Alberta, Canada BIRTH YEAR:   1977 LIVES IN:   Los Angeles, California WORKS IN:   Los Angeles, California

PHONE:   (626) 644-6226 WEBSITE:   http://www.michaelmarkowsky.com SCHOOLS:   Art Center College of Design, 2002, MFA Royal College of Art, 2000 Cooper Union, 1998

My art is about moving through the California landscape; my experience driving around on the freeways in and around Los Angeles.

Over the course of the last six years I have focused my energies on a series of drawings and paintings I call ”Driving Artworks”. Originally, I began this project by creating semi-abstract drawings of the landscape while driving my automobile. Feeling frustrated by the limitation of having to drive and draw simultaneously, I quickly enlisted friends to drive so that I could paint in the passenger seat.

I was immediately struck by how difficult it was to draw and paint the landscape as I moved through it. How do I draw a tree when I see it for only a second? How do I paint a car that is speeding past me? How do I represent a building that grows as I approach it?

Is it even possible to describe such a dynamic visual experience with a pencil or paintbrush? What an incredible challenge! When I think about my art practice, my heartbeat quickens with great excitement!

This is a completely new way of approaching the tradition of landscape painting! Rather than standing still with my easel by the side of a babbling creek, I am being hurtled along the asphalt, desperately plucking details out of the passing environment before they disappear from view.

And how appropriate that I should do this in Los Angeles, where most people’s experience of the landscape is through the windshield of a moving vehicle! 

My next great challenge is to tackle the world of sculpture with my dynamic creative process. For the most part, artists have avoided making sculptures of the landscape, because the idea of trying to contain the world in a single autonomous form is thought to be absurdly impossible; “that is crazy, why even bother?!” It is for provocations like this that I live.

Not only will I create landscape sculptures, but I will do so while moving through the landscape! I have no idea what the results will be until I begin. It is quite possible that I will fail miserably at this task. But so to were many doubtful we would one day walk on the moon. I mean this in all seriousness, and I do not speak in hyperboles.

I am convinced without a doubt that my artistic practice is as vital to the world as the latest research on particle physics, molecular biology and nanotechnology. I believe with all my heart in the power of Art, and the need for Art to remain relevant in the world of today. Art must find a way to adapt to the new world we live in, to communicate our present experience, and to give vision to those that will follow.

My early influences were Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Paolo Uccello, Botticelli and Bernini, among other Renaissance and Baroque artists. They taught me that Art was the highest accomplishment possible for a human being, a belief I hold true today. At the same time I read a lot of comic books, and learned a lot about drawing from Joe Kubert's G.I. Combat , Frank Miller's Daredevil , Herge's Tin-TIn , and even Mad Magazine.

Years later, I became enthralled with the early Pop paintings of Roy Lichtenstein, not because of the comic book motifs, but because for me they are largely about the joy of paint and the language of painting. I also gravitated to art that expressed a sense of humor, however melancholy or dark: from William Hogarth and Baltus to Yves Klein, William Wegman, Chris Burden, Paul McCarthy, Dieter Roth and Martin Kippenberger.

While I was a Graduate student at Art Center in California, I focused my interests on early modernist painting, from Munch, Cezanne and Van Gogh to the Cubists, the Futurists and Kandinsky, Henri Matisse and the early Fauves painters. I was also very much into all things gestural and graphic, such as Mark Tobey, Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Cy Twombly, Philip Guston, Stuart Davis and Brice Marden.

Michael was born and raised in Calgary, Canada, and attended the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Art degree with Honors in 1999 (Drawing Major). He was also a student at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City, the Royal College of Art in London, England and most recently the prestigious Art Center in Pasadena where in 2002 he received a Master of Fine Art degree. Michael has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including a coveted Canada Council for the Arts grant in February 2006.

Michael Markowsky lives in Los Angeles, and teaches at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California.

1999-2002	Art Center, Pasadena, California, USA (Master of Fine Arts)
2000	Royal College of Art, London, England, UK
1995-1999	Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors )
1998	Cooper Union School of Art, New York City, New York, USA

Selected Professional Experience:

2003-present	Faculty, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2002	Teacher's Assistant to Mike Kelley, Art Center, Pasadena, California
2001	Teacher's Assistant to Sylvere Lotringer, Art Center, Pasadena, California

 

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

2007	Driving Paintings and Sculpture, Axis Contemporary Art, Calgary, Alberta
2006	Driving Drawings and Paintings, Axis Contemporary Art, Calgary, Alberta
2004	Blind to the Sun, Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, Alberta
2002	Private Investigations; After the New Color. MFA Thesis Exhibition, Art Center Graduate Gallery, Pasadena, California
2002	Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed _______ in the shadows, Art Center Graduate Gallery, Pasadena, California
2001	Chasing Chance, Art Center Graduate Gallery, Pasadena, California
2001	Falling in Love, Holt Renfrew, Calgary, Alberta
2000	Assignment, Art Center Graduate Gallery, Pasadena, California
1999	ATTACK! Marion Nicoll Gallery, Center for the Performing Arts, Calgary, Alberta

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2007	Off The Wall, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2006	Carmada, MAK Center for the Arts, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
2006	UpClose, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2005	Drive Time, Wignall Museum, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, California (with Sean Duffy, Karl Haendel, Annetta Kapon, etc.)
2005	San Francisco-Oakland Bayennale, Fruitvale Transit Plaza, Oakland, California
2005	The Lateral Slip, The Sweeney Gallery, University of California, Riverside, California (with Ed Ruscha, Bas Jan Ader, Pae White, Jorge Pardo, Skip Arnold, David H. Bailey, Mark Bennett, Jessica Bronson, John Divola, Robbert Flick, Mark Flores, Kevin Hanley, Jesse Hering, Gil Omry, Jaro Straub, Mungo Thomson, Lincoln Tobier, Kerry Tribe, Ultra-Red, Benjamin Weissman & Jim Shaw.)
2004	Collage Party, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
2004	ARTRAGEOUS, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
2004	Under the Influence of Warhol, Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, Venice, California
2004	UpClose, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2003	Summer Show, Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, Venice, California
2002	Beyond Text Festival, Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, Venice, California
2001	Communique, Cactus Bra, Blue Star Art Complex, San Antonio, Texas
2001	Selected Artists, ArtSpace, Calgary, Alberta
1999	The End of the World - Millennium Show, The Uptown, Calgary, Alberta
1999	BFA Thesis Exhibition, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
1999	The Army Show, Main Hall, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta
1999	Annual Exchange Show, The Little Gallery, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
1998	Discover / Uncover, Marion Nicoll Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
1998	Annual Film and Video Festival, Cooper Union, New York City, New York

 

Selected Performances:

2002	Tracing Los Angeles, Beyond Text Festival 2002, Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center,Old Venice City Hall, Venice, California
2002	Starring role as "The Initiate" in Jim Shaw's video Initiation Ritual of the 360 Degrees, Los Angeles, California (shown in Gallerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France). Other roles performed by Mike Kelley, Stephen Prina, Dave Muller, Ivan Morley, Evan Holloway, Doug Harvey, Mayo Thompson, James Duck, Tom Recchion, Michael Intriere, Randy Kelley and Erik Olson.
2002	Performed for Joe Herring at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2001	Performed for Joe Herring's MFA Thesis Exhibition, Art Center Graduate Gallery, Pasadena, California
2000	Performed w/ Stan Kaplan for Stephanie Taylor, Chinatown, Los Angeles
2000	Performed for Joe Herring, Art Center Graduate Gallery, Pasadena, California
1999	Performed live (w/ Tyson Reeder and Caroline Thomas) for Stephanie Taylor, China-Art Objects, Los Angeles, California

       

Independent Curation:

1999	Emerging Artists, Lebensraum Gallery, Calgary, Alberta

  

Artist Residencies:

2003-2004

Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, Old Venice City Hall, Venice, California

 

Artist Lectures:

2006	The Art Institute of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
2006	New Horizons School, Pasadena, California
2004	Traditional Art Practices and Digital Media, University of California Irvine

                

Awards:

2006	Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Project Grant, Ottawa, Canada
2003-2004	Teaching Fellowship, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2002	Yvonne Segerstom Grant, Art Center, Pasadena, California
1999-2002	Academic Achievement Scholarship, Art Center, Pasadena, California
1999	runner-up for the Board of Governor's Award, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta
1999	Student Services Volunteer Award, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta
1998	Illingworth Kerr Scholarship, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta
1996	Gregory Arnold Memorial Award, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta

     

Knut Hamsun "Pan", Rick Steves' "Venice 2007"