Education:

1999 Michi - B. A. Fine Arts
University of North Alabama

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

2008
Comfort Kills Pursuit: Fight!!! , EyeDrum, Atlanta, GA
2005
MICHI: #1 SELLOUT, Apache Café Atlanta, GA

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2008 Political Circus, Ritter Art Gallery, Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL

Tindel vs Michi , The Art Dept. , Atlanta, GA

Sons of the South, Rabbit Hole Gallery, Atlanta, GA

Coast to Coast Butter Toast, Art Murmur Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Br’er, Beep Beep Gallery, Atlanta, GA 

 

2007 Art Papers Auction, Mason Murer Gallery, Atlanta, GA

La Calaveras Pop, Foundation One, Decatur, GA

 

2006 Art Basel Scion Installation 3, Miami, FL

Redneck Graffiti, Castleberry Hills, Atlanta, GA

NYC Redneck Graffiti, Jack the Pelican, Brooklyn, NY

 

Corporate Collections:

King & Spalding, Atlanta, GA

Scion (Toyota Motor Corporation), Los Angeles, CA

MetroPark USA Inc; Atlanta, GA

Usher Raymond Recording Artist, Atlanta, GA

 

Bibliography:
“Country Crunk”
Atlanta Magazine, Kimberly Turner, March 2007.

“La Calaveras Pop”
Creative Loafing, Debbie Michaud, February 7, 2007

“Know Their Names”
The New York Sun, Johanna Lenander, September 12, 2005

“Double Trouble: Two artists find new inspiration in collaboration”
Creative Loafing, Felicia Feaster, September 2, 2004.

 

Grants and Awards:

2005 National Arts Program Finalist

2005 Forward Arts Foundation, finalist

2007 National Arts Program, finalist

2008 Forward Arts Foundation, finalist

 

 

Commissioned Design

Coca-Cola
CW Network
Scion Toyota Motor Company
Jose Cuervo
Sneaker Pimps
Music Midtown
Project Alabama
Inman Park
Aspen Agency
Hands on Network
The Jones Group, Atlanta

ARTIST STATEMENT

 American Dreams: Woolgathering in a City in the South
From childhood we find ourselves attached to localized imagery that defines the world around us. Whether they are a favorite cartoon character, a red wagon or a special room in a house, our childhood iconography delights the imagination. As adults this is traded for a new set of icons; white picket fences, skyscrapers, our favorite movie stars and artist like Jean Michel Basquait, with most of our American iconography rooted in industry, progress and power.
Even more distinct and charming are the iconographic exploitations of the Southern region. The South has always been portrayed with rural kindness despite the existence of major metropolitan areas. The South is always lagging, always slow, rooted in agrarian culture and specific cuisine. Some of our collective memories are of pecan pie, grits, moonshine, confederate flags and lighting bugs. While that may be true, there is an urban South now. Cities like Atlanta provide a peculiar blend of southern hospitality and urban living, full of rich culture, diversity and history.
Our daily lives in these urban centers are especially saturated with graphics and advertising media. Consequently our iconography is just as industrious and even more rooted in consumerism. This imagery prods us and manipulates the public imperceptible ways. We've become accustomed to vast amounts of visual stimuli. Interestingly, design media is a unique place where high art and pop culture have begun to converge and is often used in painting.
Heritage, southern traditions, daily visual stimuli and design all collage in the imagination into dreamlike landscapes. Under splashes of heavy graphics, graffiti styles and other urban contemporary influences an urban playground emerges. Layers of paint, text and other mixed media converge to illustrate child-like memories and a visual code of American life in the urban South.