Michael Berryhill

StatementCVExhibitions

In his works, Michael Berryhill portrays objects that are “figuratively abstract”. For Berryhill, there’s no difference between realism and abstraction. Influenced by the emerging neo-Nabis style, Berryhill creates enigmatic paintings that arise from drawings and allude to subjects (sometimes cowboys) without giving the game away.

 

Described often as a Surrealist, he is more interested in invention, in being lost, the creation process and then finding meaning; finding his way out of being lost is so palpable. As Berryhill says: ”It’s fleeting, but when you feel that moment of getting an answer—where there are no answers forthcoming in our lives or elsewhere—when you get a real clarity in not-knowingness it’s a pretty inexplicable sensation and experience. I think that drawing does that, and a lot of different art forms: I’m a huge movie fan. But painting is the most vivid version”.

 

Michael Berryhill earned a MFA from Columbia University, New York, in 2009, a ME from Skowheagan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007, and a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, in 1994. His most recent solo exhibitions include KANSAS Gallery, NY, in 2016, Jeff Bailey Gallery, NY, and Art Los Angeles Contemporary, in 2015, and NADA Art Fair in 2013. His work has been reviewed in major art magazines, such as Art in America, The Huffington Post and The New York Times. He is represented by KANSAS Gallery in New York.

Michael Berryhill; Cowboy, 2015; pen, ink and gouache; 10 3/4 x 8 1/2 in.
Michael Berryhill; Doo-et, 2012; oil on linen; 14 x 14 in.