Bio:
Michael Schliefke graduated with a degree in painting at the Kansas
City Art Institute in 1997. Born in New York, he has lived in
Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Ireland before settling in
Austin, Texas in 2002. In the short time Michael has spent in
Austin, he has shown throughout town, selling his work and teaching
classes. In addition to living out his bachelor lifestyle,
Michael has put together a variety of
painting
shows that highlight the best painters Austin has to offer.
Michael currently has a studio space at Blue Genie and is often seen
eating hot dogs near his East Side residence.
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Artist Statement:
My paintings are all about the relations between people. The
relation of a person to his space, or more importantly, to the others
around him. I believe my paintings follow the rich tradition of
painting set forth by Titian, Rubens, Beckman, Levine and DeKooning.
I am happy with that tradition, and feel only contemporary fools who
read glossy magazine criticism would make art that avoids the past.
I use composition to tell the story, and
populate the spaces I paint with a cast of characters ranging from
showgirls and prostitutes to fat men in suits. By flattening the
space, tipping floor planes and twisting figures, I can add an anxiety
and tension to the paintings that adds to the personal stories imbedded
in them.
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