Johnson Lowe Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by New York-based artist Michael David titled Nighttime with Dreams and Mirrors.
“Michael David has never been one to look away. Whether in his visual art, his teaching, or his curatorial pursuits, he confronts tasks and challenges head-on, peeking in and poking around only momentarily before digging in, charging along, plowing through. His operative mode is energetic, vigorous, even aggressive, yet it is the consequence of an aggressive, vigorous, energetic curiosity – of a tireless drive to discover, disrupt, and possibly rupture so as to expose anew, reconfigure, and suture. His bullishness of approach is born of a bullishness on creativity and of an unwavering bullishness on, and unrelenting quest for, beauty. The artist’s conviction, in art and life alike, is that by shaking things up and interrupting norms to see what’s left standing, steadfastly, upon their settling, he’ll eventually find something that is, and that he might leave newly, right.”
— ‘Introspection, Disruption, Discovery: Michael David’s The Mirror Stage’ by Paul D’Agostino
For his upcoming solo exhibition opening on April 19 at Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta, New York-based artist Michael David will present a continuation of his series The Mirror Stage with Nighttime with Dreams and Mirrors. This exhibition, whose title is taken from a verse in the poem “Mirrors” by the Argentinean writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, further solidifies the series as a significant evolution in the artist's visual language. David’s innovative and audacious use of materials and iconography — often in specific reference to canonical works and steeped in the broad history of image-making — has long defined his painting practice. However, as he continues to investigate the application of mirrored glass, obsidian, and resin, the physicality of David's process reaches a heightened immediacy. Densely adorned with reflective pieces of glass, including black glass on occasion, David's works emphatically reflect both the artist and the audience, effectively grappling with the concept of existentialism that has informed his nearly four-decade-long career.
“Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2 offers a venerable observation of our preoccupation with the material, the temporal, and the ephemeral, encapsulating the essence of the 17th-century Dutch genre of vanitas still-life painting. This artistic wave incorporated recognizable objects and symbols of pleasure, wealth, beauty, and power into artworks as a cautionary reminder that the physical trappings of this world are ephemeral. Emphasis remained on the transient nature of human existence, underscoring the fragility of life and advocating for the discovery of true meaning and purpose through knowledge and wisdom. In this context, David’s interaction with the mirror isn’t merely a first-time self-recognition but a profound reacquaintance with his transformed self — a version only accepted by acknowledging the inherent fragility, imperfection, and mortality that life imparts. His mirror-shattering isn’t just a rebellion against personal or existential despair but a visual meditation on the aftermath of life’s tumults — broken bonds, wounded spirits, life’s inherent brittleness, from which emerges through genuine self-reflection, and humility.
These themes perhaps reach their apotheosis in Marsyas (for Astrid and Daniel), the largest work in the exhibition, where David re-imagines Titian’s masterpiece The Flaying of Marsyas, a painting about pain and the ensuing punishment from vanity. Worked on for over nine months, reassembling thousands of pieces of broken mirror through dozens of iterations, David creates a work where light emerges from the darkness – making manifest the viewer’s reflection inherent to its completion. This ever-changing reflection actualizes a temporal, unimagined space filled with light, where one becomes a part of something larger than oneself.
This philosophy also materializes in the paintings Black Vanitas IV and No Regrets (For Johns and Mapplethorpe), both composed of black glass, resin, and silicone, without any overt reference to materialistic excess. Opting for a skull’s abstract representation — a memento mori — David prompts us to contemplate the ephemeral over the material. David disrupts the visual plane not just physically but with a masterful precision that subtly incorporates these motifs, confronting our superficial obsessions and steering us toward mortality’s acceptance. Yet, this piece, and the exhibition at large, glimmers with hope, positing that in this recognition and acceptance of transient truths, we may find illumination.
