MICHAEL LAIRD (°NY, 1963, lives and works in Antwerp) can be considered as a post-modern painter pur sang. Educated in the traditional skills of drawing and painting, but being as much a reader and a thinker, he connects conceptual research with a painterly approach.
His psychedelic atmospheres and use of saturated colors and pictorial deformations are reminiscent of psychedelic underground movies. Intense, sometimes even frivolous colours that can be considered as an ‘offense against good taste’ dialogue with the charcoal under-drawing, showing the pictorial process in a rather ‘incomplete’ state, creating a tension between these parts and the more elaborated ones, the artist creates concentrated, isolated images/objects that might invite the visitor to compose alternative sequences or possible storylines. (Excerpt from a text by Johan Pas)
After working as an artist and journalist in New-York, Michael Laird moved end of 1990ies to Antwerp. Recent exhibitions include participations at Récyclart (with PBU), Brussels , Exit Art, New York City (USA), Dagmar De Pooter Gallery, Antwerp; Festival Break 2.4, Ljubljana (SL); University of Chester (GB); Tetem Kunsterruimte, Enschede (NL); Dagmar De Pooter Gallery, Antwerp (B); Gloria Halle, Düsseldorf (D); MuHKA / NICC and SecondRoom, Antwerp.