Prayer Plant on Blue Painting

Michael Pfleghaar: A Mid-Career Showcase Oct 27 - December 15, 2023 Cultivate Gallery 620 Wealthy St SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 https://www.cultivategrandrapids.org/exhibitions Michael Pfleghaar received his MFA in visual arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design, Boston, MA in 2011. Modern and contemporary design objects, architecture, botanicals, and interiors inspire Pfleghaar’s colorful representational, and abstract paintings and drawings.
 www.pfleghaar.com At a basic level, my practice has always centered around documenting my life. Early on I realized how the things we choose to surround ourselves with are a reflection of self. Inanimate objects have always been surrogates for the figure in my work. I tend to compartmentalize the elements in my compositions and thus create a conversation between objects. Mid-century modern design has influenced my work significantly as I collect design items from that period. Simple, clean lines, balance, and organic materials are characteristic of modernism. The work straddles between objective and abstraction, with early paintings depicting scenes of representational still life and interior subjects. During Graduate School my work shifted to complete non-objective imagery. I often revisit the natural world through depictions of botanical and still life objects while bringing abstract elements to the work. Flattening space and objects, mixed media, and masking are examples of techniques I applied from the abstract work to my representational pieces. In 2023, Pfleghaar was one of four artists chosen to have their work permanently installed as terrazzo floor designs at the Gerald R Ford International Airport. He was also awarded The Best of Show in the 2021 Festival of the Arts and in the West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Kalamazoo in 2020. His artwork has been featured in Arcadia Magazine, Studio Visit, Metropolitan Home, Solace, and American Craft.
 Apple, HBO, CBS, ForeSee, Hayworth, and Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts are a few of the organizations that have utilized Pfleghaar's artwork as illustrations.
 Pfleghaar attended the Spread Art Artists Residency in Detroit, MI and in 2013 was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Ox-Bow School and Artists Residency in Saugatuck, MI. His work was included in the 2012 LGBTQ exhibition ReMix: Revisiting Appropriation, curated by Jonathan Katz in San Francisco, CA.