Michael Venezia

Michael Venezia´s painting began in New York in the 1960s in the disputed areas of abstract expressionism, Pop art and Hard Edge painting. By using unusual techniques, he created surfaces which simulated film effects like speed, flickering and distortion. His colleagues at that time included his friends Dan Flavin, Sol Lewit, Robert Ryman and Donald Judd.  

After experimenting with a spray gun at the end of the 1960s, in which he became interested in the speed of the painting process, at the start of the 1970s he began a new unusual form of painting. He reduced the height of the picture to a few centimetres and extended the width of the picture to three metres and more with the result that the pictures became horizontal.

From 1981 Venezia replaced canvases with wooden lathes, on the front side of which he used the paintbrush or spatula to consciously apply the color unevenly. The upper and lower edges as well as the ends were not touched thereby emphasing the strong spatial quality of the blocks.

Using a supply blocks already available, Venezia now creates works, he arranges the blocks in rows or stacks them one on top of the other.

Michael Venezia was born in Brooklyn in 1935 and lives and works in New York and Trevi, Italy.