Michael Guy

A Colorado native, I have exhibited paintings and painted furniture in Rhode Island, Provincetown, New York City, Baltimore, San Francisco, Maine, and Arizona. I currently maintains a painting studio in Provincetown, MA. From 1975 through 2022, I was employed by the Tony Award-winning Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI, in several positions including scenic painter, props artisan, and muralist, but mainly, beginning in 1980, as graphic designer, during which I produced, among other things, nearly 300 posters.

My paintings are ostensibly about men enjoying hot sand and cool water at the end of Cape Cod, but also about the remarkable confidence we need to have to be naked or nearly-so out-of-doors in public. Ancient heroes were often depicted nude as the highest expression of self-confidence. But we are vulnerable to many things — the judgement of others, missed connections, inclement weather, crashing waves, rocks, crabs, sharks. Those challenges are not always overtly depicted in my paintings, but there are reminders that part of the thrill of the beach lies in its risks. There is more to a day at the beach than just being “a day at the beach.” Each painting is a moment in the Provincetown, MA story about a community of m...

Rhode Island School of Design, 1970-75, BA Painting

2024 Members 12x12, Provincetown Art Association & Museum (PAAM)
2023 Members Juried Show, PAAM, Provincetown, MA
2017 Members Juried Show, PAAM, Provincetown
2016 1950-2000 Celebrating 50 Years of Art in Rhode Island, URI Feinstein Providence Gallery
2015 RISD Alumni & Faculty Invitational Show, Studio 53, Boothbay Harbor, ME
2015 Group Show, Mitchell 50th Anniversary, Cottonwood Center for the Arts, Colorado Springs, CO
2015 Group Show, PAAM, Provincetown
2011 Perfect Days: New Paintings by Michael Guy, BankRI Galleries, Providence, RI
2010 Three Artists, Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA
2008 Solo Show, The Square at Trinity Rep, Providence, RI
2005 Solo Poster Retrospective, risd/works, Providence, RI
2000 & 2002 RI Gay Pride Group Shows, Providence, RI
1992 Group Show, Oasis Gallery, Providence, RI
1991 Solo Show, AS220, Providence, RI
1990 Group Show, Gallery Flux, Providence, RI
1989 At the Beach: Group Show, Galeria Mesa, Mesa, AZ
1988 RI Artists Against AIDS, Group Show, Gallery One, Providence, RI
1988 Visionary Dimensions in Nature, Group Show, Bell Street Gallery, Providence, RI
1988 Homo Erotic Art, Group Show, Jim Diaz Gallery, NYC
1988 New Art: Group Show, Panache, Providence, RI
1987 RI Open: Juried Group Show, Warwick...