Biography:

The body of work I've completed over the past year consists of images of toy stuffed animals painted on paper with thin applications of acrylic. I'm fascinated by the human fingerprint left on an inanimate object that has held a position of intimate importance in a person's life. I could talk in circles about my work, so if your interested please read my artist statement. In August I'll be graduating with highest honors from the Univeristy of Florida with a BFA and minors in Art History and Business Administration. I've participated in several local juried shows, and have been working for the past two years as Art Director for The Independent Florida Alligator, a Gainesville newspaper.

Artist's Statement:

My drawings result from thoughtful contemplation of toy stuffed animals. The images generally depict these toys as characters rather than objects, imbuing them with a strange sense of personality which conflicts with their inanimateness. This conflict is at the heart of my investigation into their paradoxical nature as both mass-produced, disposable ephemera, and personal, anthropomorphized objects of life-long memory. I work primarily in acrylic washes, applied thinly to paper creating a veiled atmosphere. Drips and textures create shifts in visual language, uniting visually segregated spaces in some drawings, interrupting the logic of objective representation in others. These devices are employed to provide compositional and sometimes narrative direction while evoking a psychological, perhaps melancholy atmosphere. By positioning a toy within this context, I allow it to engage the viewer in such a way as to elicit some reaction, be it sympathy, affinity or perhaps simply amusement.

Michael Friedman's Exhibition Experience:

2005

Thomas Center Galleries Regional Juried Exhibition

University of Florida BFAdrawing Exhibition

University of Florida Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition

A Fraternity of Artists AEPi Group Art Exhibition, Rochester, NY

2004

University of Florida Graham Area Council Student Art Exhibition

University of Florida Student Experimental Drawing Exhibition