statement

The human figure has been central in Michael Reedy's paintings and drawings for the last twenty years. His most recent works explore themes of life, death, and the human condition. This renewed curiosity in the physical limits of the body, and its ultimate failing (both outwardly and inwardly), has been paired with his prior interests long rooted in depictions of the body that fall outside the canon of art history (medical imaging and cartooning). Here, the ongoing references to anatomical illustration, and its benign approach to depicting pain and death, and cartooning serve to both underscore the comedic tragedy of physical existence and the frailties that increasingly define our sense of self as we age. In each instance, the unsettling presence of the open body presents complex questions of gender, pleasure, pain, interpretation, and reception, and results in works infused with a sense of scientific aura, moral lesson, and morbid entertainment. Consequently, the viewer is seduced into disregarding the boundaries between interior and exterior, between looking and feeling, and between the real and the pictured body.

bio

born: 1973

education

North Central College, BA, 1996
Northern Illinois University, MFA, 2000

selected awards/honors

Sylvia Tapley Memorial Prize, Clearly Human, St. Louis Artists' Guild
First Place & Peoples Choice Award, Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century, Art Center Gallery, Clatsop Community College
Dale and Gale Willcox Award, 25th Northern National Juried Art Competition, Nicolet College Art Gallery
Best Of Show, The Body Eclectic 2012, Lawrence Street Gallery

selected publications

Direct Art Magazine, Vol 21, pgs. 18-23, 5 images, back cover image, and Artist Statement.
Creative Quarterly, The Journal of Art & Design, No 32. Fall 2013, Fine Art Gallery
Hi-Fructose, Volume 27, Expulsion, pgs. 100-1, Featured Artist with article, interview, and 10 images.

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Manifest Creative Research Gallery, The Fallen, Solo Exhibition, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2015
International Museum of Surgical Science, Expulsion, Solo Exhibtion, Chicago, Illinois, 2013
Kishwaukee College Art Gallery, Recent Works, Solo Exhibition, Malta, Illinois, 2011

selected group shows

111 Minna Gallery, Portraits of Strangers, Someone's and Nobodies, San Francisco, California, 2015
Baton Rouge Gallery - Center for Contemporary Art, Surreal Salon 7, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2015
Helikon Gallery & Studios, Muses of Mount Helikon II, Denver, Colorado, 2014
Arch Enemy Arts, Equinox, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2014