Miss Sissi Construct Sculpture

This mixed media wall sculpture is from my MFA studies around the theme of objecthood. The concept is to break out of traditional painting into a hybrid which I call constructs. Playing with color and light literally by attaching a shelf with a readymade Philippe Starck Flos "Miss Sissi" orange plastic lamp against the complementary blue painting. Object hangs on the wall and needs access to power source below for lamp. I have a few more in this series that I will also be listing. Signed, titled, and dated on the back. Interpreting a utilitarian three-dimensional form onto a flat plane creating a new physical object is the ideology behind my current body of work. My paintings have found their place somewhere between representation and abstraction through deletion, isolation and exaggeration of inanimate design items. I am attracted to modern furniture, lighting and accessories because of their inherent abstract structure. Through abstraction I am able to capture the spirit of modern design esthetics while creating a new original entity. By attaching actual modern readymade objects to paintings, I create a dialog between utilitarian and non-utilitarian articles. As well as breaking the two dimensionality of a painting, the readymade presents a contrast of objecthood against representation; the subject Modernist painters have struggled with throughout the twentieth century. To reinforce objecthood, physicality is stressed in the work through the evolution of material use and how it relates to the forms inspiring the paintings. This illustrates one paradox I find in painting; it can be referential of something or an object itself, yet these two opposing views are really inseparable. Michael Pfleghaar received his MFA in visual arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design in 2011. Modernist design objects, architecture, and interiors inspire Pfleghaar’s colorful abstract paintings and constructions. His artwork has been featured in Arcadia Magazine, Studio Visit, Metropolitan Home, Solace, and American Craft. Apple, ForeSee, Hayworth, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, and Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park are a few of the organizations who have utilized Pfleghaar's artwork as illustrations. This year 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. His original artworks are in permanent collections including the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Steelcase Inc., Herman Miller, the State of Michigan and Grand Valley State University.