1
WOMAN WITH BLACK BOOTS | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 43” | 2015
2
Recently, Azgour has been drawn to explore the ubiquity of photography in contemporary culture and the changing role this has played on the individual experience. This work speaks about how we interact with images today by referencing features found in the disconnected snapshots and video clips that surround our lives. Paint becomes pixel, blur or distortion mirroring the digitally manipulated portraits and albums that populate our social media profiles. Although the disparate visuals and juxtaposed compositions appear random, they are in fact bits of narrative from the artist’s own life and travels. Building on the assumption that a photograph is a suitable representation of a memory, he combines unrelated pictures together in the same composition, challenging the viewer’s interpretation. Through psychological mood and fragmented depictions he asks us What is Real?
MICHAEL AZGOUR
Splitting his time between California and Poland, Michael Azgour is known for mesmerizing abstract figurative paintings that reflect upon fleeting moments within the human condition. His works are expressive and geometric abstractions informed by an involved process that combines a strategic, realistic technique with pattern and repetition and the muse of accidental surprise that comes as a result of consistent studio practice. This causes his figures to seemingly float with one foot firmly planted in the present while the other wafts into the past.
Michael’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe and are part of dozens of collections. He returns to the San Francisco Bay Area yearly to teach visual art and design courses at Stanford University’s Architecture and Continuing Studies programs and at the San Francisco Art Institute.
cover: J.W. DESCENDING | detail, full image on page 7 3
WALKING MAN | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 67” | 2015
4
LONDON 2: REPEAT ENCOUNTER | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 75” | 2015
5
KRAKOW: GIRL IN A PARK | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 47” | 2015
6
J.W. DESCENDING | Oil on Canvas | 47” x 67” | 2015 7
SNAPSHOTS FROM A TRAIN | Oil on Canvas | 47” x 67” | 2015
8
LONDON 4: STREET VIEW | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 67” | 2015
9
MODERN ARTEFACT: GIRL WITH RED GLOVES | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 83” | 2015
10
PLAC NOWY (NEW PLAZA) | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 83” | 2015
11
NEW YEAR’S EVE | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 118” | Diptych | 2015
12
13
MAN SEARCHING | Oil on Canvas | 71” x 47” | 2015
14
LONDON 3: MAN WALKING FROM ABOVE | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 75” | 2015
15
CHURCH OF THE ROCK, FRAGMENTED | Oil on Canvas | 47” x 59” | 2015
16
KRK/SFO | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 83” | 2015
17
ETHICS | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 103”| Diptych | 2015
18
19
PLAYGROUND | Oil on Canvas | 47” x 59” | 2015
20
BOY AND DOG | Oil on Canvas | 47” x 63” | 2015
21
LONDON 1: ENTERING THE LIGHT | Oil on Canvas | 59” x 103” | Diptych | 2015
22
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION 2012 2005 2001
Stanford University, Continuing Studies, Stanford, CA Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA, M.F.A. in Studio Painting University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, B.A. in Psychology; Minor in Chemistry
ACADEMIC since 2013 since 2010
Lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
PASSERBY | Oil on Canvas | 47” x 41” | 2015
SELECTED SOLO & TWO-PERSON SHOWS 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2009 2008
Hohmann Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA Blue Contemporary, Cambridge, UK Robert Green Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA Hohmann Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA (catalog) Art Museum of Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA William Merrill Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA William Merrill Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
SELECTED PUBLIC ART PROJECTS Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (to be installed in 2016) Scripps Memorial Hospital, Encinitas, CA (in concept phase) UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA Hearts in San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, six-month public art installation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2009)
SELECTED COLLECTIONS Than Mór Art Museum, Nyíracsád, Hungary Lyon’s Gate Entertainment Corporation, Los Angeles, CA Hotel Union Square, San Francisco, CA Stanley S. Langendorf Foundation, San Francisco, CA This biography has been edited. For a comprehensive biography, please contact the gallery.
23
MICHAEL AZGOUR 24
73-660 El Paseo | Palm Desert, CA www.hohmannfineart.com art@hohmannfineart.com (760) 346-4243 or (877) 977-2432 www.hohmannfineart.com/facebook www.hohmannfineart.com/pinterest www.hohmannfineart.com/issuu www.hohmannfineart.com/twitter www.hohmannfineart.com/youtube
HOHMANN fine art www.hohmannfineart.com
BOOKS00065 Michael Azgour
$10