MICHAEL SMOLER (b. 1973, Chicago) is a collage artist and poet, living in Los Angeles.  He is the author of five small press chapbooks, including most recently “in envy in smoke" (The Healthy Unhealthy Press, NY, 2004).  Smoler has studied and taught at Naropa University, in Boulder, CO, where he received a B.A. in Writing and Poetics from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (1998), and has also studied and taught at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA.  Since 1996, Smoler has worked as an administrator, curator, producer, and technician with numerous international visual/media artists, musicians, writers, theater, dance, and fashion companies.  Currently, Smoler is the director and co-founder of HIGH ENERGY CONSTRUCTS, an exhibitions and performance venue in LA’s Chinatown.

HIGH ENERGY CONSTRUCTS (est. February 2006) is an exhibition and performance venue in LA's Chinatown committed to presenting artists, ideas, and events that emit 'high energy.'  For the past two years, HIGH ENERGY CONSTRUCTS has attempted to positively challenge the conventions and trends found all-to-often in commercial galleries.  Part museum, part clubhouse, HIGH ENERGY CONSTRUCTS has organized 20 exhibitions and over 50 events, readings, and musical performances, and has worked with artists, curators, writers, and musicians such as Hilary Baker, Christian Cummings, Mark Dutcher, Brad Eberhard (Wounded Lion), Luke Fishbeck (Lucky Dragons), Doug Harvey, David Horvitz, Marnie Weber’s Spirit Girls, and many others.  HIGH ENERGY CONSTRUCTS has also promoted such emerging artists' as conceptual sculptor David Brady, SFAI graduate and Melbourne-based photographer Mark Blaisdell, and New York painter Branden Koch.  Other notable artists who have been included in their diverse program include Uta Barth, Joe Brainard, Monique Prieto, Steve Roden, and Kaari Upson.

-------------------------------------------------------------------**