He was cool enough to let us into his studio, the Harlem Collage Shop, to check out what he is up to. Using street posters and billboards gathered in NYC and other major cities around the world, Anderson makes super-sized collages, commonly 8 x 8 feet and up.
MICHAEL ANDERSON: Composition is the most important thing in abstraction. We can use representational imagery in different ways to create abstraction. The overall artwork is an abstraction. The individual pieces may not be abstract but the overall picture is an abstract construction.
Read the full interview.
From the press release:
The artist’s unique and meticulous studio practice, which exclusively utilizes billboards and street posters, is both confined and defined by a fixed scale, easily digestible messages and pop culture imagery. Anderson strips the original advertisements of their power of persuasion and employs them for something much more complex and insightful. By seducing our undisciplined attention spans, Anderson adds emotional dimension and narrative to images that originally held none. Abstraction and representation collide; repetition of specific fragments of imagery, some static and others swimming, mingle to hypnotize the viewer, luring him to decode the non-linear message hidden beneath the bright, enticing surface design. “I make art about the world we live in,” says Anderson.
Opening November 18th, 2010
Claire Oliver
512 W 26th Street
New York City
Michael Anderson is in a group show at Marlborough Chelsea until May 29th, 2010.
Michael Anderson is in a group show at The Butcher’s Daughter in Detroit.
The New York Times reports on Michael Andersons Times Square Target billboard that will eventually become Anna Sui tote bags.
More info over at Marlborough Gallery.
