 Michael Harwood New York City born and based, I’ve been an exhibiting artist since the mid 1970s, when I created a series of collages exploiting homoerotic undertones in mass-market magazine ads. Satirical and somewhat pornographic, these were included in the seminal “It’s a Gender Show” at Group Material (New York, 1981). In the 80s I turned to photography as a means of recording the visual delights and peculiarities I encountered in the city and in my travels. The multifarious body of photos I thus produced is the source from which I draw component images for the diptychs which I've been making since the mid '90s. Like-minded friends were my first models, and my serpentine apartment provided a uniquely fertile setting for photo sessions. 35mm film was and still is my medium of choice. My approach to making art has been influenced principally by two men of the theatre, Jerzy Grotowski and Charles Ludlam - strange bedfellows, to be sure. Grotowski’s theory of Poor Theatre and his emphasis on the role of physical impulse in the creative act, and Ludlam’s gay gaze and his embrace of the Ridiculous are the touchstones of my practice. My mentor was the artist Thomas Lanigan Schmidt, and there have been several essential muses, some of whose images grace these pages. My photographs have been exhibited at the National Arts Club (New York), the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (New York), the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Sara Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY), the Menschel Photography Gallery at Syracuse University, mdh fine arts, and ClampArt (New York). My work has been published in The James White Review, The Archive: Journal of the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, Treasures of Gay Art from the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, and Self-Exposure: the Male Nude Self-Portrait. My other art-world credits include performing in Scott Burton’s Behavior Tableaux at the Whitney Museum (1972), and appearing as a student protester in Sam Durant’s drawing, “Legality is Not Morality” (2004), his reproduction of the Newsweek cover photo for the issue of May 6, 1968. |
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| Group The 2010 LGBTQ Great Photo Show, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, NY, 2010 Visual AIDS Web Gallery, 2010, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, 1999 Seldom Seen: Work from the Foundation's Permanent Collection, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, NY, 2009 Treasures of Gay Art, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, NY, 2009 Recent Acquisitions and Donations, Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, New York, NY, 2009 The Sparky Show, Schroeder Romero/Winkleman Project Space, New York, NY,2008 The Great Gay Photo Show, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, NY, 2008 Winter Salon, mdh fine arts, New York, NY, 2008 Dark Ride, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, 2007 Self Exposure, ClampArt, New York, NY, 2005 Neo Erotique, Art@Large, New York, NY, 2004 The Boys of Summer, ClampArt, New York, NY, 2004 The Muses, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, NY, 2001 Sight of Construction, LGBT Community Center, New York, NY, 2001 Benefit Show, Art Resources Transfer, New York, NY, 2001, 2000, 1999 A Space for this Passion, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, 2000 Desire, Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse University, NY, 1999 Group Show, Barbara Ann Levy Gallery, Cherry Grove, NY, 1999 Photoflexion II: The Masters, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, 1999 Desire, National Arts Club, New York, NY, 1999 Plus or Minus Thirty, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, New York, NY, 1999 The Gay Landscape, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, New York, NY, 1999 Color, Scott Pfaffman Gallery, New York, NY, 1999 Home is Where the Art Is, National Arts Club, New York, NY, 1996 Gay Photo Annual, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, NY, 1993 Group Show, Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York, NY, 1990 AIDS Projection Project, Electric Blanket, New York, NY, 1990 Ushers’ Show, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY, 1989, 1988 It’s a Gender Show, Group Material, New York, NY, 1981 Publications "Michael Harwood Wants You on His Kitchen Table", The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, Summer, 2009 Treasures of Gay Art from the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, Peter Weiermair, editor, All Saints Press, 2008 Art from the HIV Community, 2006 Calendar, GlaxoSmithKline Corporation Self-Exposure: the Male Nude Self-Portrait, Reed Massengill, editor Universe/Rizzoli, 2005 Elle Décor, “Christopher Tanner”, October, 2002 The James White Review, Winter 2002, Fall 1999 Contact Sheet, no. 103, catalog, 1999 Tom of Finland Foundation Erotic Art Gallery, no. 18, 2001, no. 12, 1999 Home is Where the Art Is, catalog, 1996 Thomas Lanigan Schmidt, catalog, Holly Solomon Gallery, 1987 Cover Magazine, 1987 New York Native, 1985 The Advocate, 1977 Mach Magazine, 1977 Grants Visual AIDS Artists’ Materials Grant, 2006, 2003, 1999, 1998 Art Matters, Photographers’ Emergency Fund, 1995 Private donors Collections Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Harry Weintraub Tom of Finland Foundation other private collectors Other Activities International Center for Photography, Assistant Teacher, 1993 Collaborations: Thomas Lanigan Schmidt, Agosto Machado Art documentation: Christopher Tanner, Thomas Lanigan Schmidt, Timmy Bellavia, Sandra Korsak, Hoge/Santiago, Owen Morell, Judy Pfaff Education Columbia College, B.A., 1968 Reviews from The New York Times June 18, 1999 Holland Cotter on “Desire”, at the National Arts Club: “The male body is central…in Michael Harwood’s picture of a bodybuilder tiptoeing over a kitchen stove…And [the show] concludes on a witty high note with Mr. Harwood’s “Huck, Lollipops and Pollock Book” in which eye candy of various kinds (including images of sculpture by the artist Thomas Lanigan Schmidt) come together." from The New York Times August 2, 1996 Holland Cotter on “Home Is Where the Art Is”, at the National Arts Club: “…and Michael Harwood offers a striking photograph of a nude man stretched out on a kitchen table.” Link to Michael Harwood Photography on facebook |
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© 2011 Michael Harwood. All rights reserved. |