About
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Michael Genovese creates work that aims to connect with collective experiences, be it social or existential. He speaks to the familiar; however, through mark-making, reduction, or transformation of the recognizable, he reassigns power. Rather than eliminating evidence or obscuring facts, he contextualizes our perception of meaning and history. His work deals with archives, permanence, and the designation of value. His concern with materiality and medium furthers his investigation of worth.
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Souvenir, Exhibition Essay, 2023 > Read essay
Kane, Carolyn L., Bridge Time, Catalogue essay, 2016. > Read essayGavin, Francesca. The Monocle, London, UK, April 2016.
Wilcox, Larry. ArtReview, Exhibition Review, London, UK, May 2016. > Read review
Simmons, William J., Know Wave Magazine, cover and feature. March 2016.
Intervals, Essential Hommes, interview, March 2016.
Intervals, Flaunt Magazine, interview, March 2016.
Califuk, Flaunt Magazine, feature, September 2015.
Stratton, Shannon. Writing of History, Paris London Hong Kong, Chicago, IL, catalogue essay, 2014. > Read essay
Momin, Shamim., “Lines and Cracks and Zebras and Horses.” OHWOW/DAP, Los Angeles, CA, Catalogue essay, 2013. > Read essay
Westin, Monica. New City, Chicago, IL, Exhibition Review, September 2013. > Read review
Ditty, Sarah. Argon Magazine, Issue 4, Dublin, IR, March 11, 2013.
Mizota, Sharon. “Spotting Cracks in the System.” Los Angeles Times, p. D18-19, January 25, 2013. > Read review
Koh, Daveen. “Shards of Hope.” The Cornell Sun, Front Page, January 31, 2013.
Hegert, Natalie. ArtSlant, January 22, 2013.
Shechet, Ellie. Bullett Magazine, January 18, 2013.
Pieri, Kerry. Harpers Bazaar, January 7, 2013.
Rodriguez, Klaudio. “PS/PPS.” Frost Art Museum/FIU, Miami, FL. catalogue, 2012
“The Pocket Guide to Politics.” D4D/OHWOW, p.1, New York, NY., 2012.
Damian, Carol. “South Florida Cultural Consortium for Visual and Media Arts.” Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL. Catalogue, 2011.
Stratton, Shannon. “Writ Deep: the craft and embedded word.” NIU School of Art and Design, Dekalb, IL, catalog essay, 2010.
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Souvenir, FVAC, Avon, Connecticut (2023)
Pocket Pictures, Morån Morån, Los Angeles, CA (2023)
Intervals, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, CA. (2016)
Joliet, Paris London Hong Kong, Chicago, IL. (2014)
Lines and Cracks and Zebras and Horses, OHWOW, Los Angeles, CA. (2013)
P.S., Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL. (2012)
It’s not the heat, it’s the humility, OHWOW, Miami, FL. (2009)
Institutionalized, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL. (2008)
Contemplation Station, Chicago Cultural Center, Pedway, Chicago, IL. (2008)
We all we got, Packer Schopf, Chicago, IL. (2008)
Just because it’s legal, doesn’t make it right, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, NY. (2008)
Showroom, 32nd & Urban, Chicago, IL (2006)
Cabeza de gato, Norse Projects, Copenhagen, DK (2005)
Image Transferring, Orange, Chicago, IL (2002)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
The Pyramidal Principal, RES. Lisbon, Portugal (2023)
Photography & ______ w/ Carlos Javier Ortiz, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, IL (2020)
Intimate Margins, Hathaway Contemporary, Atlanta, GA (2020)
More Light, JOAN, Los Angeles, CA (2017)
Form Shapes Language, Morán Morán, Los Angeles, CA (2018)
Felix, Roosevelt Hotel, Los Angeles, CA (2018)
Objects to identify, Morán Morán, Los Angeles, CA (2018)
Veils, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, CA. (2014)
In Plain Sight, Art Works Projects for Human Rights w/ Nina Berman & Jon Lowenstein, Chicago, IL (2014)
Write Now, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL. (2012)
It Ain’t Fair, OHWOW, Miami Beach, FL. (2012)
Between Here and There: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL. (2011)
Those who do, Faculty Exhibition, New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL. (2011)
Materialism, OHWOW, Miami, FL. (2011)
The South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Arts Exhibition, Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL. (2011)
Escape the Room, Mosquera Collection, Farside, Miami, FL. (2011)
The Island, Flagler Memorial Island, Curated by Shamim M. Momin, LAND, Miami Beach, FL. (2010)
It Ain’t Fair, OHWOW, Miami, FL. (2010)
New Work Miami 2010, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL. (2010)
Provisions, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY. (2010)
Alphabet, Galerie Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, SE. (2010)
Speak Easy, w/ Juan Angel Chavez, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL. (2010)
Writ Deep, Jack Olson Gallery, Northern Illinois University School of Art, Dekalb, IL. (2010)
Confection, OHWOW, Miami, FL. (2009)
Set to Manual, Girls Club, Fort Lauderdale, FL. (2009)
Paper Chase, P/T Gallery, Auckland, NZ. (2009)
Time/Temp, HACC, Hollywood, FL. (2009)
It Ain't Fair, OHWOW, Miami, FL. (2009)
All-Media Biennial, HACC, Hollywood, FL (2009)
Dark Matter, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL (2008)
Michael Genovese and Juan Angel Chavez, Sign Language, Unit B and the University of Texas San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. (2008)
Fumed, Polvo, Chicago, IL. (2008)
Plaff! Co-Habitat, Monterrey, MX Curated by David Hernandez Cosas (2007)
Fusiform, Rhys Gallery, Boston, MA (2007)
Indy Windy, IUN Contemporary Art, Indiana University, Gary, IN (2007)
Somewhere over the rainbow, The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL (2006)
It’s a long walk home, Space 1026, Philadelphia, PA (2006)
Tragic Beauty, Open End, Chicago, IL (2005)
Select Media 4: The New Chicagoans, Iron Studios, Chicago, IL. (2005)
Basement, Copenhagen, DK (2005) Amor y Esperanza w/ Chris Silva,Page Brothers Building, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL. (2003) -
Piejko, Jennifer. “Color inside the lines,” Essential Homme, March 2016, p.115-117.
"Califuk", Flaunt Magazine, September 2015, p.134.
Shechet, Ellie. “Michael Genovese, Lines and cracks and zebras and horses,” Bullett Magazine, January 18, 2013.
Pieri, Kerry. “Michael Genovese, Lines and cracks and zebras and horses,” Harpers Bazaar, January. 7, 2013.
Mohseni, Yasmine. “Michael Genovese, Lines and cracks and zebras and horses,” Blouin ArtInfo, January, 8, 2013.
Ditty, Sarah. “Michael Genovese,” Argon Magazine, January. 26, 2013, p.16.
Kiesswetter, Jan. Bright, Typography Between Illustration and Art. Cologne: Daab, 2012, p.162, 311.
“The Pocket Guide to Politics,” New York: D4D/OHWOW, 2012, p.1.
Oliver, James. “Permanence,” New York: Post New, 2012.
Suarez de Jesus, Carlos. “He said, we said”, Miami New Times, April 19, 2012, p11.
Tschida, Anne. “Art of a scribe and the building of a community,” Knight Arts, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, April 25, 2011.
Batet, Janet. “Arte, Cotidianeidad, y mundos virtuales,” El Nuevo Herald, Miami, FL, January 26, 2011, p.17.
Tschida, Anne. “Escape this room,’ Knights Arts, John and James L. Knight Foundation. February 8, 2011.
Brukell, Claire. “OHWOW: A Fabulous Ménage,” Amsterdam: Blend, May 2011.
Momin, Shamim. the island, Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Los Angeles, December 2010.
Stratton, Shannon. “Writ Deep,” Northern Illinois University, Chicago, IL., 2010.
“Artist-in-Residence creates P.S., NIU Today,” Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University, September 8, 2010.
Versal 8, Amsterdam: Words in here, 2010, p. 29.
“Michael Genovese: It's Not the Heat, it's the Humility.” Berlin: Lodown Magazine, May 2009, p 35.
Ruby, Lydia. “Itʼs Not the Heat, itʼs the Humility,” Miami: OHWOW, July 2009.
Gavin, Francesca. “Writing His Way into the History of Art,” London: Dazed & Confused, July 2009, p.33.
“Michael Genovese: Itʼs Not the Heat, itʼs the Humility.” Paris: LʼOfficiel Hommes, July 2009, p. 42.
Klanten, Robert, H. Hellige. Playful Type: Ephemeral Lettering and Illustrative Fonts. Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2009.
Carroll, Donald. “Just cause it’s legal doesn’t make it right,” Brooklyn, NY: Jack the Pelican, January 2008.
Pocock, Antonia. “We all we got,” Chicago: Packer Schopf, April 2008.
“See For Yourself: Artist Working On-Site.” MCA Chicago Magazine, February 2008. p.11-12.
Mikkalo, Erika. “Chicagoans in Transit.” Chicago: Proximity Magazine-Imaginary Cities, October 2008, p. 12-13.
Jarque, Fietta. "El arte marca su territorio" Barcelona, SP: EL PAIS, June 14, 2008, p.13A
Judson, Ben. Sign Language (San Antonio) Art Lies: Contemporary Art Quarterly Exhibition Review →Almeida, Arturo. “UTSA hosts 'Sign Language'” UTSA Today, San Antonio, TX, July 2008.
Silva, Ed. “Signs of the Times” San Antonio Express, San Antonio, TX., July 2008, p.12.
Fitsch, Sarah. “Truth in Advertising” San Antonio Current, San Antonio, TX., July 2008, p.14.
Klanten, Robert, H. Hellige, and S. Ehmann. The Upset: Young Contemporary Artists, Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2008, p.136.
Klanten, Robert, H. Hellige. Lemon Poppy Seed: Multitasking Creativity. Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2008, p.114-116.
Gillam, Greg. “Go Tell Mama...”, Chicago: Proximity Magazine, The Chicago Issue Mapping and Reading Contemporary Culture in the City. Chicago, June 2008, p.146.
“Michael Genovese,” Chicago: Proximity Magazine, The Chicago Issue Mapping and Reading Contemporary Culture in the City, Chicago, May/June 2008 p. 84-85
Platow, Raphaela. New American Paintings, 2008, p.30
Ponce, Phil. “MCA Chicago Winter Residency,” Chicago Tonight, Art Beat, PBS/WTTW 11, February 2008.
Cosas Hernadez, David. “Plaff!,” Monterrey, MX: Co-Habitat, August 2007.
Gavin, Francesca. New Underground Art. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2007, p.16-17.
Klanten, Robert, H. Hellige. The Great Escape, Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2007
Recent exhibition
“Souvenir is a visual and conceptual exploration of how identity is remembered, mythologized, and marketed. Through bold paintings, sculpture, installation, and interactive elements, artist Michael Genovese constructs a layered narrative around nostalgia, commodification, and belonging—while playfully questioning ideas of authorship, self-promotion, and the increasing overlap between art, marketing, and entertainment…” > Essay and exhibition images
Studio work
Solo Exhibitions
Souvenir
“Souvenir is a visual and conceptual exploration of how Italian-American identity is remembered, mythologized, and marketed. Through bold paintings, sculpture, installation, and interactive elements, artist Michael Genovese constructs a layered narrative around nostalgia, commodification, and belonging—while playfully questioning ideas of authorship, self-promotion, and the increasing overlap between art, marketing, and entertainment…” > About
Post-Script
“It's the result of works created during my tenure as artist-in-residence that included the community in the making of a physical and virtual archive of the zeitgeist of students. It was presented in silhouettes that echoed some artists work I was studying like Frederick Kiesler, Marcel Broodthaers and pieces in the Frost's permanent collection by David Hockney, Louise Nevelson, Ad Reinhardt and Robert Indiana…” > About
“We all we got”
"We all we got," are written in Korean, Urdu, German, French, Spanish, Polish, and Bosnian on these humble posters. In the engravings displayed nearby, the two quotes reappear alongside further social commentary and unknown names tangled within baroque patterning.” > About
It’s not the heat, it’s the humility
“Michael Genovese’s work operates as a reflection both in a conceptual context and in a literal sense. This exhibition addresses a range of subjects, from Art History to American Culture, pomposity to personal debt…“ > About
Lines and Cracks and Zebras and Horses
“Genovese is interested in how lines divide and connect; create distance or communication. His sculptures turn these vectors into objects in their own right, emphasizing the spaces in between rather than on either side. In our increasingly Balkanized political climate, it’s a more than welcome metaphor…” > About
Post-Post Script
“P.P.S. is a series of studio work where the transcriptions from the plates are engraved into fractured mirror polished metal that reference silhouettes of ancient relics of civilization. Engraving the text is rooted in the performance of being a scribe. The text is translated into local languages from where they were made and written in columns to the point of illegibility…” > About
Joliet
“ the formalisms of the cracks themselves stand alone as repositories for abstract imagery from natural and invented worlds: like stitched seams, imagined lines of constellations, and uncanny growth of strange plant life, they seem filled with forces of gravity and grace, dripping down walls or attempting to scale and branch. The overall effect recalls Charles Ray’s famous declaration about “Hinoki,” …” > About
Intervals
“Genovese has brought into focus by transforming a set of exceedingly banal passing moments–moments not meant to be noted let alone reflected on–into frozen and static paintings, immortalized in time. Put differently, by aestheticizing the most vernacular slice of the infrathin…” > About
Pocket Pictures
“This work represents a shift from Genovese’s earlier large-format abstractions based on glitch aesthetics. Here, the focus is inward—toward perception, surface, and the systems that shape our seeing. By translating digital error into oil and linen, Genovese creates a quiet space where chance becomes artifact, and looking becomes a layered act of care and attention…” > About
Complete Exhibition List
> Solo and Group Exhibitions
Public Sphere
P.S. (2008-12)
Documenting the the zeitgeist of Americans through call and response public art work that documented, compared, and contrasted social commentary during a time of change from 2008-12. Surfaces and w/ styluses were installed in public spaces in different parts of the country, with subjects from Faith to Existentialism. > Learn more about P.S.
Sala de escape
"Resting with the petals of a rose, by Michael Genovese is a piece with a heightened sense of symbolism. The artist who has always had an interest in codification and the representation of history through the construction and deconstruction of symbols, presents up with a blue agave plant whose leaves have been engraved with phrases extracted from self-help videos from YouTube..” > About
In Plain Site
“In Plain Sight is an exhibition and public presentation of investigative projects about human trafficking and forced labor in the USA with work by Nina Berman, Michael Genovese, and Jon Lowenstein…” > About
Forgotten
“The collaborative work includes images from Carlos Javier Ortiz’s archive and a collection reinterpreted photographic screenshots of the photos by Michael Genovese. In addition, Genovese illustrated a poem by Ortiz with hand written text titled “Fresh Fruit…” > About
102 N. 6th Street
“Stage 5 large scale “Interval” wall paintings on-site at 102 N. 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY.
Obstacle
“Defying the territorial declaration made by fences, and the distance etiquette expected when interacting with fine art, Construction instruction deconstruction construction, 2009, is a performance video which serves to not only negate the terms of confines, but also to activate a sedentary object, infusing it with history, movement, and experience…” > About
Skin Folk/W.A.W.G
“Rather than looking to the history of language art, Writ Deep is an exploration of the relationship between craft and text as a unique affinity between forms. Where the use of text in art has historically been to push the boundaries of the field - including operating as an anti-art form or advocating for an anti-aesthetic - text and craft share a longer history where text is anything but anti-craft…”
> About
Between here and there: Process
"Though translation implies accessibility, Genovese purposely records the words in such minute letters that they are unreadable. His tablets thus become paradoxical Rosetta Stones, containing information in several languages yet accessible to no one.” …”
the island
“Located on Flagler Memorial Island, the island presents newly commissioned installations, sculptures, multi-media works, and ephemeral interventions by 17 contemporary artist, all sited loosely within the theme of the deserted island and the implications of a space both part of and beyond civilization…” > About
Selected Essays & Reviews
Intervals. Bridge time by Carolyn L. Kane Narrated by Natasha Lyonne
These days no one has time to wait. Spare seconds, minutes, let alone half-hours and 45-minute sessions have become increasingly expensive in our high-speed, high-resolution, pay-per-download Wi-Fi culture. Everything must be NOW or it risks being at all. At least this is the ideology ushered in through e-commerce, mass media, and corporate capital. > Continue Reading
Joliet. Exhibition Review by Monica Westin
Michael Genovese’s linear wall reliefs mimic the everyday cracks in pavement, walls and other human structures that surround us; they also serve as traces and indexes of the less tangible fractures around us. > Continue Reading
But not simpler… by Shamim M. Momin
The title of Michael Genovese’s exhibition (Lines and Cracks and Zebras and Horses) draws in part on a colloquial aphorism — “when you hear hooves beat behind you, don’t expect to see a zebra” or “when you hear hooves beat, think horses, not zebras” — which typically is understood to evolve from the principle of Occam’s (or Ockham’s) razor.
> Continue Reading
Joliet. Exhibition Review by Monica Westin
Michael Genovese’s linear wall reliefs mimic the everyday cracks in pavement, walls and other human structures that surround us; they also serve as traces and indexes of the less tangible fractures around us. > Continue Reading
This realization feels like a bit of bait-and-switch. Genovese’s installation comes on like a site-specific piece — an engagement with the space of the gallery itself. But the fact that the “cracks” are actually individual sculptural pieces > Continue Reading
ArtReview
Exhibition Review by Larry Wilcox
“What are these paintings? On one hand, they are the straight-ahead depiction of by-products of a system that is attempting to accommodate a contingency in its interface (the fact that the Internet’s speed is determined by a number of hard-to-reconcile variables). On the other hand…” > Continue Reading