Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Pointer.
Hi Michael, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a fourth generation artist. I received my first camera at age nine and began working in the darkroom when I was twelve.. I have won numerous awards for photography and drawing, as well as exhibiting extensively in the United States, Taiwan, and Europe. After a solo exhibit in Wichita, Kansas I was invited to teach Photography at Wichita State University, I taught there for three years. I am best known for my large scale semi-abstract expressionist analog photography work. My work is an examination of the relationship of painting to photography. In 2009 I lived in Afghanistan supporting a free dental clinic in Kabul and working with the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan. Until recently I served CCAA as an advisory board member.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Making art is not a struggle, believing that what you are making has value in the larger world requires a confidence that can only be acquired through years of failure and credible success. I see failure as the normal consequence of understanding when a piece doesn’t demonstrate the artist’s intention. I think of it as failing upwards because it enhances my ability to clarify the thinking around my theme that is necessary for exhibit worthy artwork, this is difficult to do unless you can be rigorously honest with yourself— honesty is apparent in the final result for the viewer. It is always a struggle to find enough money to support the creation of a project and prepare the work for exhibition.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work explores the evolving relationship between photography and painting. Rooted in a lifelong practice of drawing and painting under my artist father’s guidance, I came to photography with a painter’s sensibility. The darkroom became my studio, photo paper my canvas, and chemistry my paint. From this merging of mediums, influenced by abstract expressionism, emerged what I call Photoexpressionism. Each piece begins with an image that anchors reality and holds the truth of a moment, which I then expand through abstraction, gesture, and direct engagement with materials. Rejecting the sterile perfection of traditional black-and-white photography, I embrace spontaneity and imperfection with splashing, dragging, and layering chemistry as I would paint. Many of these gelatin silver pieces are quite large, six feet by seven feet, Id-Ego-Id is six feet by 21 feet. Each print is analog and unique, drawn exclusively from my own photographs. My influences include Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Marin—painters who pushed boundaries. From Motherwell, I learned the courage of pouring emotion onto a surface; from Rauschenberg, the freedom to experiment with collision and chance; from Marin, how to bring order to chaos. Their examples affirmed my desire to work, as Rauschenberg said, “in the gap between art and life.” Ultimately, I want viewers to experience not only the image but the surface itself, to feel the artist’s hand alive in chemistry and gesture. My work challenges photography’s boundaries, expanding its expressive and painterly possibilities.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Photography is wrestling with big questions about the use of artificial intelligence. Is it just another tool? Is AI something that is used because the artist lacks the skill to accomplish their work? Casual art patrons tend to respect and value the skill of painting, drawing, printmaking, or sculpture more than they value photography, I don’t know that it’s possible to change that idea, so a photograph has to work harder than a painting and demonstrate its value through emotional and intellectual impact. I think digital is easier than any analog process, I think we are coming to a division within photography along those lines. Contemporary art is no longer just about esthetically pleasing constructs, much emphasis is placed on writing and thinking about the art idea and the resulting artwork is just a distillation of the intellectual sweat. I believe there will be many convolutions of artistic formulas leading to some resolution about these ideas, I look forward to being involved in the discussions.
Pricing:
- $2,500 for my 45 x 60 inch works
- $800-1,500 for smaller pieces
- $5,000 for 72 x 84 inch works
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mepfa.me
- Instagram: @mepfa, @m7pointer
