DLI

DESIGN LAB ONE

DL 1
GROCS cPORTAL

HATʼS UP
May 5, 2010
2010
About the Lab
Michael Kagan
Wednesday Tea Brooklyn, NY
As an artist, I have become fascinated with
the connection between painting and space
Classes travel. Space images have opened up new
outlets for me to expand size and painting
technique, brush work, and abstraction in my
most recent work. Through my work, I am
Workshops constantly looking to create a tension and
anxiety between abstraction and representa-
tional painting. The iconic images of astro-
nauts and their hardware in space become
the vehicle to express this tension. My paint- February 14, 2010
ings are not documentations of space flight, Wednesday Tea
but of abstract interpretation. In these pieces
of work, the paint strokes communicate space 3.15 - 5.30 PM
with its beautiful calmness and contradicting
fast, powerful, chaotic senses of unknowing-
ness. Thick, fast, and, at times, chaotic over-
lapping brush strokes cross and interweave
violently throughout the canvas. However, the
flurry of brush strokes dissolve then come
together to form an image of peace and
tranquility in space. Machinery and complex
space hardware are broken up into soft sec-
tions and layers. Similar to space, my work
depicts an intensity in the light resulting in
almost a cinematic quality. Through my work,
I am making a visual record of a place that is
far away, yet in our calm and chaotic lives,
relatable to all viewers.