Michael Stuart Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
My work addresses the space between experience and the story that follows, the self and the idea of the self—the self as a body and the self as mediated, articulated, and complicated by imprecise descriptive mechanisms. Within a network of sculptural and photographic devices, I examine the continual becoming of a subject in simultaneous opposition to and dependence on the continuum from which this representation is rendered. The fabricated subject hinges its identity on a belief in impossibly static origins and in turn attempts to assign order to intricately woven yet predominantly chaotic systems. This determination to construct an ordered selfhood is, despite its inherent futility, instinctual and necessary. Hovering around tales of past trauma and a complex and often prescriptive filial mythology, my work exposes the space between perceived poles of self and the narrative shadows they cast.
My work addresses the space between experience and the story that follows, the self and the idea of the self—the self as a body and the self as mediated, articulated, and complicated by imprecise descriptive mechanisms. Within a network of sculptural and photographic devices, I examine the continual becoming of a subject in simultaneous opposition to and dependence on the continuum from which this representation is rendered. The fabricated subject hinges its identity on a belief in impossibly static origins and in turn attempts to assign order to intricately woven yet predominantly chaotic systems. This determination to construct an ordered selfhood is, despite its inherent futility, instinctual and necessary. Hovering around tales of past trauma and a complex and often prescriptive filial mythology, my work exposes the space between perceived poles of self and the narrative shadows they cast.
CV
BIOGRAPHY
Born Nantucket, MA, 1979
Lives and works in New York, NY
EDUCATION
2010
-M.F.A,, Columbia University, New York, NY
2007
-Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2003
-B.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010
-Artists Who Play Well With Architects, SUPERFRONT, Brooklyn,NY
- B-Sides, 6-8 Months Project Space, New York
- Columbia University 2010 MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by Anthony Huberman, Fisher Landau Center for Art, New York
- New Work/Group Show, Gallery 1043, New York
- A Failed Entertainment, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York
2009
- First-Year MFA Exhibition, curated by Fia Backstrom, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York
2008
- Lost in Your Eyes, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York
AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS
2010
- Nominated by Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ faculty for the Daisy Soros Prize for Fine Art
-Curated and coordinated Columbia University School of the Arts’ Visiting Artist Lecture Series (VALS): a lecture series to which we invited a diverse array of 28 artists and curators from around the world.
-President of Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ Arts Student Council
2003
- Awarded the Leo Holub Award for Excellence in Photography from the faculty of Stanford University
SELECTED ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
2010
-Jones, Abigail, “Walking Around in my Heart” on OthergroundNY.com
-Gottlieb, Akiva, “The Infinite Wallace.” The National
-Tang, Lucy, “A Failed Entertainment,” The New Yorker Online.
-Hagberg, Eva. “Behind the Scenes of an Infinite Jest-Inspired Art Show,” Flavorwire.com
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2010
-Adjunct Photography Professor, Columbia University
2009
- Assistant Professor for Professor Thomas Roma
- Assistant Professor for Adjunct Professor Yola Monhakov
2008
-Assistant Professor for Adjunct Professor Daniel Willner
BIOGRAPHY
Born Nantucket, MA, 1979
Lives and works in New York, NY
EDUCATION
2010
-M.F.A,, Columbia University, New York, NY
2007
-Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2003
-B.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010
-Artists Who Play Well With Architects, SUPERFRONT, Brooklyn,NY
- B-Sides, 6-8 Months Project Space, New York
- Columbia University 2010 MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by Anthony Huberman, Fisher Landau Center for Art, New York
- New Work/Group Show, Gallery 1043, New York
- A Failed Entertainment, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York
2009
- First-Year MFA Exhibition, curated by Fia Backstrom, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York
2008
- Lost in Your Eyes, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York
AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS
2010
- Nominated by Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ faculty for the Daisy Soros Prize for Fine Art
-Curated and coordinated Columbia University School of the Arts’ Visiting Artist Lecture Series (VALS): a lecture series to which we invited a diverse array of 28 artists and curators from around the world.
-President of Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ Arts Student Council
2003
- Awarded the Leo Holub Award for Excellence in Photography from the faculty of Stanford University
SELECTED ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
2010
-Jones, Abigail, “Walking Around in my Heart” on OthergroundNY.com
-Gottlieb, Akiva, “The Infinite Wallace.” The National
-Tang, Lucy, “A Failed Entertainment,” The New Yorker Online.
-Hagberg, Eva. “Behind the Scenes of an Infinite Jest-Inspired Art Show,” Flavorwire.com
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2010
-Adjunct Photography Professor, Columbia University
2009
- Assistant Professor for Professor Thomas Roma
- Assistant Professor for Adjunct Professor Yola Monhakov
2008
-Assistant Professor for Adjunct Professor Daniel Willner
“Circle Stories” #4, 34, 42, 49 (2010)Photographs, Quadriptych, 27.5” x 88”
“Circle Stories” #28, 39 (2010)Photographs, Diptych, 60” x 96”
Contingence (2010)Cut photographs, Triptych, 42” x 126”
“Contingence” is a meditation on the original and contingent gesture, experience and the story that follows, as well as an analysis of the nature of representation, the object photographed, and the photographic object.
“Contingence” (2010)(detail)
Cut photograph, each 11” x 11”
These are two frames from the series that comprises “Contingence.” Following a system that began with a cut from the center of a square piece of paper to its corner, the piece of paper was then placed on a light box, photographed, and printed. I then used the origin of the cut represented in the photograph as the origin of the actual cut in the piece documented here. This logic was followed until the system reached the bottom of the original square of paper.
“Origin” (2010)Sculpture: wood, steel
Diameter 10’, each piece approx. 2’ x 3’ x 1”
A meditation on the impulse to assign fixed origins to impossibly complex systems, “Origin” addresses the futility of locating the wind’s origin. Sixteen weathervanes are placed in alignment with the points on a compass. In their physical space, the angels are poised to collide, but in the symbolic realm their function signals dispersion.
“Origin” (2010)(detail)
Sculpture: wood, steel
All of the replicas of the original folk-art weathervane of the Archangel Gabriel originated from one block of wood.
“Legacy” (2009)Photographs and permanent marker, Diptych, 30” x 80”
These images were taken simultaneously on either side of the ferry off which my grandfather committed suicide. Embedded in the imagery is the implication that every departure bears the mark of its return. These images expand on the many levels of mediation possible in a photographic image: the view of the horizon beyond the window, the droplets on the window, the window itself, the photographic surface, the text on the photograph, and the glass within the frame.
“Legacy” (2009)(detail)
“If you can’t see my mirrors I can’t see you” (2010)Sculpture: Wood, Etched Glass, Etched Mirror, 12” x 24” x 3”
“If you can’t see my mirrors I can’t see you” (2010)(detail)
“markmaker” (2009)Installation: Photograph, chair, Dimensions variable
An image of my father’s scalp and a record of my hand, this is a meditation on mortality, the fluctuating agency in the relationship between father and son, and a consideration of my complicity in objectifying my father for the sake of art.
“markmaker” (2009)(detail)
“sonfather” (2009)Photographs, Diptych, 27.25” x 44”
“Branded” (2009)Photograph, 22” x 27.5”
“Subject Objects”: Columbia First-Year Show Installation (2009)Photographs, Sculptures, Projection / Dimensions variable
“Uvula” (2008)Photograph, 50” x 40”
This and Image 17 are extracted from a large series of images taken with an 8 x 10 camera of pages from an anatomy book for the blind.
“Ovulation” (2008)Photograph, 40” x 50”
“I am nothing but my story is nothing” (2008)Sculpture: Transparencies, magnets, light box, Dimensions variable
This sculpture creates a visual analog to the function of the title sentence—by superimposing the Braille equivalents of each letter in the piece’s title, the physical object denies meaning much like the content of the sentence denies its meaning—and yet in both, after the negation, a structure remains.
“I am nothing but my story is nothing” (2008)Sculpture: Transparencies, magnets, light box, Dimensions variable
“-er -ed” (2008)Drawing, 8.5” x 22”