Michael Madzo (1950-2023)

“The paintings are made with various pieces of paper materials, all beginning with a single form or color. The painted image evolves steadily, piece by piece, taking on its’ form and direction by the addition of each individual piece of paper or paint. I work on many paintings simultaneously both small and large and often find portions of a painting migrating to another work in progress. As the pieces of paper are laid down, acrylic paint is used to over-paint and cement the pieces in place. Varnish is laid on top of the paint and then the colored threads are sewn throughout the work with a sewing machine. All paintings are original. I have been working in this manner for 24 years, showing primarily in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Santa Fe and Mexico.”

Here’s a little bit more about Michael’s process:

Difficult to describe, Michael Madzo’s artwork speaks for itself in luminous hues and vivid, often-times whimsical subjects. His trademark technique of sewing bits of his paintings together attracts attention both for its symbolism and for the rich texture it adds to the works. Madzo’s artwork is a synthesis of both traditional and textile art. “It just…happened one day, “he says thoughtfully, “I needed to join two sections together, and had tried everything else. So I thought I’d try sewing.” Collage was the result. In assimilating materials at hand, the artist created something new.

Many of Madzo’s images depict personae and creatures that are at once fanciful, grotesque, and heroic, and, at the same time, communicate a compassion and empathy that results in a haunting impression.

One of the most striking details of Madzo’s work is a specific type of eye. We see and experience with our physical eye, and then there is a spiritual eye. In Madzo’s work it is the spiritual eye. Madzo states, “This is an eye that is always looking back. I see the figures in my paintings as someone at the end of a fantastic journey.”

Mazdo’s figures speak chapters to anyone willing to spend time contemplating them. And where does Madzo go within himself and what are his thoughts when he encounters the body of his work, the living work, surrounding him in his studio? “It’s the mystery”, says Madzo, “It’s looking for liquid moments in this otherwise solid and stiff world. It’s a function of the artist. We learn how to go to the formless plain. I put the invisible and the indescribable into a form. It is a translation device – a facilitator. It is a collecting of moments.”

Michael Madzo graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. Since 1987, he has been represented by galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and New Mexico.

Website: www.michaelmadzo.com

Solo Exhibitions

2006 – Hunter-Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2004 – Hunter-Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2002 – Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2000 – Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999 – Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1998 – MB Modern, New York, NY
1997 – Sydne Bernard Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Thomas Barry Fine Arts, Minneapolis, MN
1996 – Galerie Gastaud, & Caillard, Paris, France
Galeria Estela Shapiro, Mexico City, Mexico
1995 – Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Galerie Montpensier, Paris, France
Horwitch Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1994 – Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1993 – Dorothy McRae Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1992 – ART/LA 92 Los Angeles, CA
1992 – Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1991 – Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1991 – Denenberg Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010 – Fantastic, North Dakotas Museum of Art
2010 – Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2008 – Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM.
2008 – Lurie Fine Art, Carmel, IN
2007 – Volakis Gallery, Yountville, CA.
2006 – Picking Up the Pieces, William D. Cannon Gallery, Carlsbad, CA
2004 – Isolation and Intimacy, Zenith Gallery, Washington , DC
2004 – Piece By Piece, The Gallery at Port of Call, Warwick, NY
2004 – Lurie Fine Art Galleries, Boca Raton, FL
2003 – Hunter-Kirkland Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2003 – Art Miami January 9-14, Miami, FL
2002 – Europa: Views From Across America, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN
2002 – Destinations of Desire, Thomas Barry Fine Arts, Minneapolis, MN
2001 – Quirkyworks II, Bennett Galleries, Nashville, TN
2000 – Take A Second Look, Greater Reston Arts Center, Reston, VA
1999 – Figure In/Figure Out, MB Modern, New York, NY
Common Threads, Diane Nelson Fine Arts, Laguna, CA
Present Art VI, Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1997 – Contemporary Figures, MB Modern, New York, NY
1996 – North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
Present Art IV, Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1995 – Pasted Papers: Collage and the 20th Century, Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Emulations: Quotations From the Source, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA
Present Art III, Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1994 – Trees, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside , CA
1993 – Present Art II, Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Dark Suburban Fantasies,” Art institute of Southern California, Laguna, CA
“Daylight Fantasy…The Night’s Dark Side,” Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA
“The Purloined Image,” Flint Institute of Art, Flint, MI
1992 – “The Sticking Place,” Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA
Untitled, A Gallery on the Fourth Floor, San Francisco, CA
1991 – “Collage Montage,” Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Sixth Open Studio Day, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

PUBLICATIONS/AWARDS

1998 – Zoo, Animals in Art, Edward Lucie-Smith. Watson-Guptill publications, New York, 400 Pages. page 102-103 (color reproduction), page 371 (color reproduction)
Minnesota Arts Board Artist Fellowship Recipient
1995 – Artscene, June 1995, vol. 14 No. 10: Cover illustration
1994 – The New Yorker, July 25, 1994, color reproduction, page 18
Los Angeles Times, Calendar art listings, April 3, 1994, black and white illustration
1993 – The New Yorker, Sept. 6, 1993, page 103 (color reproduction)
1992 – Michael Madzo Collage Paintings (catalogue) with articles by Peter Frank and Judith Hoffberg, published by Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA., 1992, 24 pages, 9 color plates.
Frank, Peter “Art Pick of the Week,” L.A. Weekly, June 19-25, 1992
Kapitanoff, Nancy: review of “Collage-Montage,” Los Angeles Times, Calendar, Westside/Valley section, January 5, 1992
1991 – Hoffberg, Judith A. “Collage Logic,” VISIONS Art Quarterly, volume 5, number 4, Fall 1991, pg. 11 (color reproduction).

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

Universal Management Consultants/Growtth, Atlanta GA
ICC, Los Angeles, CA
Saatchi and Saatchi, London, England
Vendome Investissement, Paris, France
Searle, Skokie, IL
Barbour/Langly Productions, Los Angeles. CA
The Lippin Group, Los Angeles, CA

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS (Partial List)

Jay Moskowitz/Nadine Baddour, Atlanta, GA
Art Marks, Potomac, MD
Peter Beale, Los Angeles, CA
Nicholas Hytner, New York, NY
Holly Hunter, Los Angeles, CA
Joan Ankrum, Los Angeles, CA
Joshua Mostel, New York, NY
Stuart and Beverly Denenberg, San Francisco, CA
Ruth Meyers, Los Angeles, CA