ABOUT THE ARTIST

While working for more then twenty years at the National Gallery of Art some of the worlds most beautiful and respected art work has passed through my hands, ranging from the early Northern Renaissance diptych’s of Rogier van der Weyden to the contemporary visions of Jasper Johns and his target paintings. Each piece exquisite and provoking in its own right. This experience has revealed to me my personal identification of what marks a successful piece of art. While it is often a visual experience, a work of art succeeds when it engages the mind and revisits the viewer’s intellect in unexpected moments. This indicates that there is something pertinent with that object and it stimulates our personal relation to the world and to art. Under the spell of Constable, Daubigny, and Valenciennes my own work has returned to the images of the landscape, despite it’s dismissal by contemporary thinking in today’s art community. Landscape has the ability to transport us to a moment or place that can reflective and spiritual,  giving us a brief respite from the calliope of sonic and visual noise that assaults in every day modern life. The late paintings of George Innes succeeded in transporting the viewer to those sacred and reflective moments with more (or less) then the actual illustration of the place. I hope that at sometime in my work I can have similar success in moving the viewer to that reflective moment……..mbp

 

Michael B. Pierce

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

-Maryland Federation of the Arts
             Small Wonders, Dec 2 – 27, 2008
             Curator; Diane DiSalvo
             Frog Pond @ Asseateaauge
             Oil on canvass on wood
             4 ½ x 11

-THE ARTS CLUB OF WASHINGTON
Light and Air; A one man exhibition at the MacFeely Gallery, 20 paintings, 6      watercolors
              Curator; Eric Denker
              November 3rd-22nd , 2006
 
-WPA/C SILVER ANNINVERSERY “CENTER PIECE” AUCTION
              Curator; Linden Cline
               February 10th, 2006
               “Life Cycle in no Particular Order”

-MARYLAND FEDERATION FOR THE ARTS
              Annapolis, Maryland
              Curator; Ross Merrill
              September-November, 2004
              “Cape Henlopen”

-ELEMENT
              Falls Church City Center for the Arts
              Curaor; by Lisa Chun
              March 7- April 14, 2003
              Seven paintings, three watercolors

-ARTS COUNCIL OF FAIRFAX COUNTY OPEN EXHIBITION 2002;
             Arts Council of Fairfax County
             Curator; Stacey Schmidt, Assistant Curator of Contemporary art, Corcoran
             October 31-December2, 2002
             “When I See an Elephant Fly”, oil on wood

-SIX ARTIST, STUDIO @ 627 K, 6 paintings
             Wohlfarth Galleries, 3418 9th St.
              Washington, D.C.    20017
              April 19th-June 7th 2002

-ART-O-MATIC
             Open Venue, Waterfront S.W, Washington
             Oct-Jan 2002
             10 paintings, including the large “Indian River Bay”

-INTERNATIONAL ARTIST SUPPORT GROUP
            Curator; by Ken Young
            7th St. N.W. Washington, D. C.
            March-April, 2000
            “Summer Dream”, oil on wood

GRANTS

-Arlington Arts Council
Grant ($4,000) awarded in Sept 2004, for painting and installation of picture,  in a storefront venue, by Oct 2005.

about pricing; each piece is different in the amount of work that is involved. Generally the small works range from $220-$340. The larger works can range from $350 to $1200 depending on the size. Obviously the larger pictures, 4 ft and bigger, will approach the higher cost. Works on paper range from $120 to $220, but there is a cost for hinging, UV plexi and sometimes framing and those cost are in addition. Those preparation cost can range from $80 to $120. Please e-mail any inquries……….thank you