‘Bloxo’ by Michael Reeder, 2023
Limited Edition print collab. with artist Mike Mitchell and Static Medium.
From the artist duo's 'Boxo' series.
8 x 8 Inches
20.3 x 20.3 Centimeters
Giclée print on 290gsm Cotton Rag fine art paper.
Timed Limited Edition of 229 (#68/229)
Hand-signed in pencil by Reeder bottom left.
Hand-signed and numbered in pencil by Mitchell bottom right.
ARTIST BIO (Reeder)
Michael Reeder was born in Dallas, Texas in 1982, where he grew up influenced by the local skate and street culture. Drawing and painting in traditional mediums from a young age, Reeder found himself drawn to the underground, unseen, yet very public form of painting graffiti. He later moved to New York City where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from the School of Visual Arts. Post-college, Michael took a job with Eyecon Studios in Dallas, Texas and learned to paint large-scale, traditional murals. These experiences fused with his early graffiti influence formed and grew into his portraiture work today.
Reeder’s current work commands attention through the use of bold color, graphic geometric patterns and realism. His portrait work is heavy, steeped in solemn imagery, yet saturated with bright, eye-popping color. Greatly influenced by the subject of defining identity, his fascination lies within the individual self, and those fleeting in-between or contemplative states that zap you out of mundane reality. Reeder’s process is open and free flowing, focused on allowing the work to take on its own sense of self-identity. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, along with numerous printed publications such as New American Paintings, Le Petit Voyeur, and HiFructose Magazine. Reeder participated as an artist in residence at Detroit’s Red Bull House of Art in 2016 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
ARTIST BIO (Mitchell)
Based in Austin, Texas, Mike Mitchell is an artist and illustrator primarily known for his small-scale giclee prints, original paintings and limited edition figures. Widely collected series include his Food Dudes, Fat Birds, and Just Like Us, three separate series of playful illustrations which are produced and released on a regular basis through the artist's own online store. Mitchell is also known for his one-of-a-kind "Bastards", torn prints reassembled into new compositions with tops and bottoms that mostly align but don't completely match.
Mitchell's first entered the public sphere in early 2010 with the release of his "I'm With Coco" poster for Conan O'Brien, The following year, Mitchell appeared in several gallery exhibitions that further cemented his reputation as a master of the pop-culture genre, including exhibitions at Spoke Art Gallery in San Francisco, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, and Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra. That year, Mitchell also introduced the first prints in his SUPER series, featuring iconic personalities reimagined through a superhero motif.
In 2012 the artist debuted his popular "Fat Birds" series, a run of ornithological illustrations resembling an adorably absurdist Audubon, this was followed up in 2013 with the artist's "Portraits" series, many of which debuted in an exhibition at Mondo Gallery in Austin. In that series, the artist depicts pop culture characters at a side view against a monochromatic background to create an new contemporary trope on pop art portraiture. Soon after, half a dozen perpetually running and smiling Food Dudes were also produced in 2014. During this time Mitchell further developed his "Skully" character, an adorable memento mori found in both pop culture and fine art settings.
Mitchell saw continued success with his various print series though in 2019 when upendend his known repertoire by debuting three new original acrylic and oil paintings at Takashi Murakami's ComplexCon in Long Beach, CA.
An exploration into the digital space two years later with a series of self published and high succesful NFT followed, as well as a trailblazing series of NFTs produced with contemporaries Shepard Fairey, Tristan Eaton and Michael Reeder.
In 2022 the artist debuted his very first vinyl figure with Harman Projects at DesignerCon in Anaheim, CA.