Mikel Glass: Fearless Painter
By by John A. Parks
Saturday, October 1 2005
Saturday, October 1 2005
Published on AllBusiness.com
Mikel Glass approaches his work with a fearless passion. Unafraid of varying his subject matter, he blithely changes media from painting to sculpture and back again. Moreover, he is consistently courageous in taking on difficult and challenging subjects in his work. While most artists construct exhibitions around single themes, mindful of maintaining a cohesive style, Glass seeks to explore a huge variety of possibilities in his oeuvre. His paintings vary from meticulous formal portraiture, to cunningly deadpan trompe l'oeil, to bizarre and often disturbing developments of highly personal imagery. So broad is his assault on the possibilities of art-making that he titled a recent exhibition "(One Man) Group Show."
Despite the disparate appearance of Glass' work, a number of themes emerge. The artist expresses these themes through a group of recurring images that he invests with symbolic meaning. One of his favorite images is that of the doll.
"All the dolls I own I have found in the trash," Glass says. His studio in New York City's Hell's Kitchen conveniently gives him access to all kinds of garbage. "I see them as creatures that I have rescued," he continues. "I think about how each and every doll was once an object of affection and love. When I find them they are often battered and disfigured; and so they become symbolic of our inability to maintain affection as well as the callousness that we are capable of."
One of the artist's most extraordinary paintings in this theme is At Rest, which shows a doll lying on a bed of quilted green satin clutching a tiny plastic toy. With its eyes closed and hands quietly at its side, the doll resembles a corpse laid out with all the lurid cosmetic care of a funeral home. The small toy in the doll's hand acts as a final touch of pathos. As with all of Glass' paintings, the rendering is immaculate, the color and tone carefully brushed and blended to secure a hypnotic high-finish realism.
In Sacrifice of Subject Matter, Glass is shown in the act of eviscerating a doll with his palette knife. A small boy with angel's wings holds him back from the violent act. The reference is obviously to the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, wherein God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son as a sign of his faith. It wasn't until the patriarch had raised his knife that an angel stayed his hand and an animal was provided as a substitute.
Glass often speaks about the drawbacks of being a painter of difficult subjects. The work can be hard to sell and the audience potentially small. For a painter with Glass' extraordinary gifts, the decision to pursue such obsessions can represent a financial sacrifice on the part of the artist's family. In Sacrifice of Subject Matter, Glass' son Zachary becomes the angel who persuades the artist not to
Despite the disparate appearance of Glass' work, a number of themes emerge. The artist expresses these themes through a group of recurring images that he invests with symbolic meaning. One of his favorite images is that of the doll.
"All the dolls I own I have found in the trash," Glass says. His studio in New York City's Hell's Kitchen conveniently gives him access to all kinds of garbage. "I see them as creatures that I have rescued," he continues. "I think about how each and every doll was once an object of affection and love. When I find them they are often battered and disfigured; and so they become symbolic of our inability to maintain affection as well as the callousness that we are capable of."
One of the artist's most extraordinary paintings in this theme is At Rest, which shows a doll lying on a bed of quilted green satin clutching a tiny plastic toy. With its eyes closed and hands quietly at its side, the doll resembles a corpse laid out with all the lurid cosmetic care of a funeral home. The small toy in the doll's hand acts as a final touch of pathos. As with all of Glass' paintings, the rendering is immaculate, the color and tone carefully brushed and blended to secure a hypnotic high-finish realism.
In Sacrifice of Subject Matter, Glass is shown in the act of eviscerating a doll with his palette knife. A small boy with angel's wings holds him back from the violent act. The reference is obviously to the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, wherein God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son as a sign of his faith. It wasn't until the patriarch had raised his knife that an angel stayed his hand and an animal was provided as a substitute.
Glass often speaks about the drawbacks of being a painter of difficult subjects. The work can be hard to sell and the audience potentially small. For a painter with Glass' extraordinary gifts, the decision to pursue such obsessions can represent a financial sacrifice on the part of the artist's family. In Sacrifice of Subject Matter, Glass' son Zachary becomes the angel who persuades the artist not to
