Michael Schwartz

Michael Schwartz is a contemporary abstract painter who is represented by The George Gallery in Vancouver and has exhibited across Canada. His work has been featured in British magazine World of interiors. Michael’s most recent and upcoming exhibitions in Canada include The Twist Gallery in Toronto, The Georgia Gallery, Mitfar Gallery and The Show Gallery in Toronto. He has a background in film, including a long career in the advertising film industry. His biography reveals “being self-taught has allowed Michael to approach his craft with a sense of uninhibited exploration. He is not bound by formal techniques or preconceived styles, but rather guided by creative instinct..His paintings often reflect the complexity and diversity of his personal experiences and are inspired by the work of Rothko, De Kooning, Pollock, and Hartigan”.

With a subtle sense of geometry, angularity as well as linearity, Michael Schwartz conveys form in complex compositions which fill up the entire planes of his space. These fragmented planes are either clearly defined through bold shapes of linearity or forms of brush strokes expressed in a geometric manner. Containing a sophisticated color palette which tends to favor warm tones, Michael explores how abstraction can be used to manipulate sensory experience and various emotional impulses.

While many of the works may come off as polished and complete, some of the works have an unfinished aesthetic typical of a Picasso-esque philosophy towards the purpose of art. His more incomplete works, which tend to be a little older, convey a raw aesthetic while his newer pieces portray lyrical abstractions which dance across the composition like fine jazz or orchestral music. Ranging from flattened forms of geometry and linearity which reflect design principles to forms of expressive brushwork, the paintings offer a diversity in expression which are unified by Michael’s complex eye for color harmony as well as his sense of great balance of compositional refinement.

Peace (pictured above) is one of Michael Schwartz’s newest works which conveys deep inclinations in linearity and geometry. The piece remains extremely polished and may remind the viewer of forms reminiscent of works from great 20th century masters such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, or Alexander Calder. These forms dance and weave across the surface like a spiderweb and offer great balance to the eye despite the busy nature and numerous quantities of forms contained within the composition.

Michael Schwartz conveys complex intuition towards paintings. His diverse and complex approach reveals multiple facets to approaching paint, surface, composition, structure, and brushwork. With a taste for dance-like weaving within the planes of his surface, a passion for warm color as well as a poetic, refined or expressive structural forms, Michael conveys how painting can be used to express contemporary emotional impulses through variation, unpredictability, and great sense of improvisation and experimentation.

https://www.michaelschwartzfinearts.com