Michael Kagan

Helmet, 2022
Mirror polished white bronze
13.8 in. x 14.5 in. x 11.8 in. / 35 cm. x 37 cm. x 30 cm.
25 kg
Edition of 1 + 1 AP

New York City-based artist Michael Kagan is known for producing oil paintings with large, expressive brushstrokes that convey a decisive hand and the power of his subject matter. Kagan explores the physical and emotional journey that accompanies explorers, from mountaineers to astronauts. His dramatic paintings depict man pushing the limits of nature through technology and physical stamina. Kagan believes a painting is perfect “when it can fall apart or it can come back together depending on how you read the image and also how close you are.”

Born in 1980 in Virginia Beach, Michael Kagan received his BA from The George Washington University and MFA from New York Academy of Art, where he also completed a postgraduate fellowship in 2005. Special projects include a commission from the Smithsonian, three collaborations with Pharrell Williams, and album cover artwork for White Lies’ Big TV, which won the 2013 Best Art Vinyl Award. A new sculpture collaboration with Pharrell was unveiled during Paris Fashion Week in June 2023.

Kagan has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. In 2019 he had his first solo museum exhibition at Virginia MOCA, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Recent solo exhibitions at Almine Rech Gallery include Brussels in 2021, London in 2022, and Paris in Fall 2023, as well as The Journal Gallery in New York City in Fall 2023 and with Venus Over Manhattan in New York City in Spring 2024.

Kagan’s work is in the collections of the Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont; Maezawa Collection, Chiba, Japan; MAKI Collection, Tokyo, Japan; Gemini Trust Company, New York, New York; Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, Boston, Massachusetts; Founders Fund, San Francisco, California; and Jacob & Co., New York, New York, among others. A monograph of his work was released in 2019 by ARTBOOK | D.A.P.

Michael Kagan is represented in the United States by Venus Over Manhattan, and in Europe and Asia by Almine Rech Gallery.

Courtesy of the artist (@mrkagan) and The Journal Gallery

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