statement

ANATOMY, NARRATIVE, AND ORNAMENTATION

In my most recent drawings I have begun to more broadly explore visual complexity and ornamentation in conjunction with my prior interests; which have long been rooted in contemporary trends in figurative and portrait based works, as well as fringe images of the body, either in medical illustration or cartoons. This push towards excess and/or ornamentation propels the figures in to another space, and permits the psychological possibilities or fantasies of the figures (or those embedded in the narrative) to operates outside of normal spatial conventions, and in short become uncanny. In some respects my goal has been to make each new image more beautiful and self-indulgent than the last, while still challenging traditional notions of pain, violence, optimism, and beauty.  

bio

born:1973, Illinois

education:

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

selected awards/honors

Purchase Award. Au Naturel: the Nude in the 21st Century, Clatsop Community College, 2007
Purchase Award. America‚s 2000 Paper Works Competition, Minot State University, 2007
Hoffman Trust  Purchase Award. 47th International Award Exhibition, San Diego Art Institute, 2004
National Collection Purchase Award. 5th Annual SU National Exhibition, Shippensburg University, 2004

selected publications

Creative Quarterly, The Journal of Art and Design, no.15, 2009
Spectrum 16, The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Underwood Books, 2009
Direct Art, Fall/Winter - Volume 15, 2008

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Michael Reedy, Kishwakee College, Kishwakee, IL 2011

selected group shows

Drawing Discourse, University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC, 2010
The Nude in Contemporary Art, UNC Pembroke, A.D. Art Gallery, Pembroke, NC, 2009
Tabula Rasa: A Drawing Exhibition, Parkland College Art Gallery, Champaign, IL, 2008
2008 Rockford Midwester,  Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2008