Statement

I am a Canadian born artist who has worked in New York City since 1995. I use different mediums such as acrylic paint, ink and pencil to create different bodies of work. I was an active participant in the vibrant Williamsburg 90s visual art community. During that time worked as an assistant to legendary figures such as famed SoHo gallery owner Holly Solomon, the estate of Gordon Matta-Clark and worked and performed with the legendary new media artist Nam June Paik. These experiences influenced me. Since my arrival in New York, I have been developing my own creative language that synthesizes the use of abstraction, architectural structure and pattern. Now in my South Bronx studio, my work is informed by the architecture and the local walls and bridges. Architecture, construction, demolition and urban textures were born out of the enormous growth and development in the Toronto downtown I saw while growing up. This environment formed my concept of abstraction as an activity of continual process. I view painting as a construction site of ideas, in the process of becoming something, like a city itself. This process begins from a simple sketch, photo, or general idea. These are then realized as a series of images on canvas or paper. I allow myself open time and space to stretch out visual ideas without a definitive stopping point. Recently, I have an interest in built forms in the insect world and the mutable nature of deteriorating structures. My works focus on the color, texture, and the line of urbanization. Currently, I am incorporating found sedimentary stones in my paint after pulverizing them at the studio. This allows the paintings to incorporate texture with architectural abstraction in a new way.


BIO

Mike Childs (Canadian, b. 1965) received his BFA from the University of Guelph, Canada (1994), and an MFA from Florida State University (1996). At 26, he received an award to live, paint and teach in Florence, Italy from Florida State. There he absorbed the murals and architecture of the medieval city. He is the recipient of several awards including a 2002 and 2021 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants. He has had numerous solo and two person shows since his first solo show in 2005 at the Cue Foundation of Art curated by Cameron Martin.It was reviewed by Roberta Smith in The New York Times. He has maintained studios in New York since 1997. Since 2017 he has kept a studio in the South Bronx. His major exhibitions include: Heidi Cho Gallery, NY in 2008 curated by Rafael Diaz Casa, Wave Hill Gallery, Bronx NY in 2019 curated by Jennifer Mcgregor, David Richard Gallery NY 2020 and 2021, The Spartanburg Museum of Art, SC, 2021, The Bronx River Art Center, Bronx NY in 2021 and Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson NY in 2023. In 2020 during the pandemic, he and artist Melissa Staiger created an ongoing 8 artist curatorial collective Streaming which premiered at the Stand 4 Gallery in 2021. David Rhodes in The Brooklyn Rail reviewed his work in 2020.

Artist in the Bronx Studio 2023