Michael
P. Berman
Photography, Paintings,
Installations
"I
am not concerned with fashioning something New... rather I am
obsessed with retrieving what is lost. I walk in the land... sometimes
I make images. I use the images in installations, objects, and
paintings. Eventually everything is discarded ... but nothing
is lost."
Mr.
Berman's work is firmly rooted in both the contemporary and
the classical tradition. His classically executed black and
white photographs participate in and extend the romantic tradition
of western landscape photography. He avoids the spectacular,
however, in favor of small and unnoticed scenes or vast empty
views. The photographs reveal both the complexity and abstraction
of nature, while his installations seek to find a place for
man within it.
Mr. Berman is currently photographing El Gran Desierto, from
the Pinacate in Sonora north across the border through the Cabeza
Prieta to the Gila River, on a fellowship from the Southwest
Center at the University of Arizona. This borderland desert
is one of the last great big empties of the Continent.
Michael
Berman's work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and is
included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
The Amon Carter Museum of Western Art and the Museum of New
Mexico. He has received fellowships from both the Wurlitzer
Foundation and the Arizona Commission of the Arts.
Mr.
Berman was born in New York City, came to Colorado College where
he studied biology and has wandered thoughout the southwest
ever since. Finding science too narrow, he later studied photography
and earned an MFA at Arizona State University in Tempe. Ten
years ago he settled in southwestern New Mexico where he now
lives in the Mimbres Valley near San Lorenzo
Michael P. Berman
UPCOMING BOOK
Selected
Public Collections
| Amon
Carter Museum, Fort Worth |
|
| Museum
of New Mexico, Sante Fe |
|
| UNM
Art Museum, Albuquerque |
|
| The
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
|
| The
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson |
|
| Museum
of Photographic Arts, San Diego |
|
| New
Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans |
|
| Tucson
Museum of Art, Tucson |
|
| Ransom
Humanities Research Center, Austin |
|
| Hallmark
Collection, Kansas City |
|
| Smith
College Museum of Art, Northhampton Gallery |
|
| Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York |
|
Selected
Exhibits and Installations
| 1985 |
UMC
Fine Arts Center at University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado |
| |
Harry
Wood Fine Art Gallery at Arizona State University , Tempe,
Arizona |
| |
"Kiote
Landscape Project", Site Installation, Arizona |
| 1986 |
Houston
Center for Photography, Houston, Texas |
| |
Colorado
Mountain College, Breckenridge, Colorado |
| |
"The
Poetics of Space", Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| 1987 |
Scottsdale
Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona |
| |
Scheinbaum
& Russek, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| |
Southern
Light Gallery at Amarillo College, Amarillo, Texas |
| 1988 |
Stark
Gallery, New York , New York |
| |
The
Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina |
| |
"Use
Only as Directed", Nexus, Atlanta, Georgia |
| |
Etherton
Gallery, Tucson, Arizona |
| 1989 |
Scheinbaum
& Russek, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| |
Blue
Sky, Portland, Oregon |
| |
Sangre
De Cristo Arts Center, Pueblo, Colorado |
| 1990 |
Etherton/Stern
Gallery, Tucson, Arizona |
| |
University
of Arizona Art Museum, Tucson, Arizona |
| |
Phoenix
Art Museum, "Triennial Exhibition", Phoenix, Arizona |
| 1991 |
The
Temple of Music and Arts, Tucson, Arizona |
| 1992 |
Scheinbaum
& Russek, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| 1994 |
Etherton/Stern
Gallery, Tucson, Arizona |
| |
Francis
McCray Galleries, WNMU, Silver City, New Mexico |
| 1995 |
The
Photographer's Gallery, Palo Alto, California |
| 1996 |
"History
as Influence: Photographic Pluralism, American Work from New
Mexico" |
| |
Soros
Center for Contemporary Art, Kyiv, Ukraine |
| |
Ukrainian
Artists House, Kharkov, Ukraine |
| 1997 |
Museum
of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| |
O'Sullivan
Arts Center, Regis University, Denver, Colorado |
| 1998 |
Etherton
Gallery, Tucson, Arizona |
| |
Harwood
Art Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| 1999 |
Galleri
Urbane, Silver City, New Mexico |
| 2000 |
Frances
McCray Galleries, WNMU, Silver City, New Mexico |
Abbreviated
Vitae
| 1956 |
Born
New York City |
| 1975
- 79 |
Attends
Colorado College, Majors in Biology |
| 1978
- 82 |
Wildlife
Technician for Colorado Division of Wildlife |
| 1982
- 85 |
Attends
Arizona State University, M.F.A. Photography |
| 1989 |
Receives
Visual Artist Fellowship from Arizona Commission on the Arts
for painting. |
| 1991 |
Receives
Fellowship from the Wurlitzer Foundatin, Taos, New Mexico |
| 1994
- 95 |
Instructs
Photography at Western New Mexico University, Silver City
New Mexico |
| 1995
- Present |
Living
and working in the Mimbres Valley near San Lorenzo, New Mexico |
Current
Representation
Galleri
Urbane, Silver City
Scheinbaum & Russek, Santa Fe
Etherton Gallery, Tucson
Joseph Bellows
Gallery, La Jolla
|