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David Michalek

About this Artist

David Michalek was born and raised in California. He lives and works in New York City. While in college, Michalek assisted photographer, Herb Ritts, and for several years following graduation, worked as a commercial photographer with an emphasis on fashion and celebrity.  Since 2001, he redirected his focus to creating his own work, which ranges from photography, video/sound installations and live performance to site-specific works of public art. Face and body as prime mediums of affective expression and communication have been a consistent presence in his work. This concentration is explored through the use of performance techniques, storytelling, movement and gesture in both live and recorded contexts. His work in video has been focused on capturing marginal moments —carefully staged — that with minimal action develop density through the interplay of image, sound and most especially time.  Exploring notions of durational and rhythmic time (as opposed to the referential time used in cinema) in both form and content, his works engage in intimate yet open narratives.  His recent work considers the potentiality of various forms of slowness alongside an examination of contemporary modes of public attention.

Read David Michalek's Artist Statement