Mike Solomon

THE LANGUAGE OF ABSTRACTION
With guest artist Mike Solomon
Thursday, February 10, 4:00-5:00 PM ES

REGISTER

Sunday, October 10, 2021
2 - 3 pm

Register

Inspired by the powerful works of artists John Sims, Mike Solomon, and Kirk Ke Wang on view in Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration, the museum is proud to host this meaningful community discussion on the impact current and historical racial trauma.

The art game has many unwritten rules. It’s a good thing that nobody wrote them down.

COVID-19 trashed the artistic rulebook as it has nearly everything else in contemporary life. Artists and visual arts institutions have been flying by the seat of their pants since the pandemic hit last year. While strange changes are far from over in the art game, here are some of the new ad hoc rules area artists and arts leaders have invented to keep playing. We’ll start with a few individual artists.

Mike Solomon: Honor the Heroes

The bulk of Mike Solomon’s work is nonrepresentational. But his latest series of colored pencil drawings holds a mirror to the real world.

“Scenes from the Pandemic” has a journalistic feel to it. The title tells you exactly what to expect. There are a few scenes of wounded journalists and protestors of all ethnic origins. But most of Solomon’s drawings celebrate Black doctors, nurses and front-line caregivers dealing with the collateral damage of the battle against COVID-19.

These heroes include Dr. James A Mahoney – a Brooklyn pulmonologist who pulled all-nighters fighting the virus, and then became a victim himself; Dr. Armen Henderson, a Miami internist who was handcuffed and detained by police outside his home; and Dr. Lisa Merritt, the founder and director of the Multicultural Health Institute in Sarasota.

“I made a connection with Lisa at the beginning of this year,” Solomon says. “She enlightened me a lot about what was going on in the African American community. Thanks to her, I became fascinated with the Black doctors and first responders serving on the front lines during the pandemic. Like all doctors, they risk their own lives to save the lives of others. But if these doctors take off their scrubs and walk outside the hospital – they’re taking a risk just because of the color of their skin. It takes an amazing amount of courage to do what they do. I wanted to find a way to honor it.”

"I just hope people see what's there," says Mike Solomon of the portraits comprising his latest exhibition, Scenes from the Pandemic, showing online this November through the Sarasota Art Museum. Drawn in colored pencil, the series captures, in part, the long terrible arc of that period in 2020, beginning as a tribute to black doctors and essential workers but ultimately spiraling into an emotional account of protesters and journalists under assault in a world caught on fire and an artist coming to terms with what he sees. Though isolated from his studio while caring for his mother during the pandemic, he couldn’t ignore the images on TV, the photographs arriving daily on the doorstep or his artist’s instinct gnawing at his inactivity.

“A dissatisfaction with being more remote than I wanted to be in terms of activism,” Solomon says. “I didn’t want to be outside of it looking in.” And in those photographs, he found himself struck by a particular aspect of the social unrest unfolding before him. “There are black doctors helping anyone who walks through the door,” he says. “Yet they take their scrubs off and walk outside and they might get shot. Can you imagine that?” So the renowned abstract artist picked up a colored pencil and tried something he hadn’t done in near 50 years: draw from a photograph. And as he did, he embarked on both an artistic and emotional journey.

Solomon admits to a certain “philosophical prejudice” against drawing from photo references, saying that he never quite understood why an artist would spend their time on such a pursuit when the photograph already exists. “Now I do,” he says. Not only did Solomon find the exercise an artistic challenge, more engaging and difficult than he had previously supposed, but he also found that, in forcing himself to absorb each image in minute detail and re-create it from his own hand, it awakened greater compassion for his subjects.

“I go down into this little world and the empathy emerges,” he says. “It’s a way of digesting it in an empathetic way you wouldn’t normally.” It’s an empathy that Solomon hopes his audience can partake in, if they just take a moment to stop and really see what has happened on their and his collective watch. And if the images in the papers didn’t get the point across, maybe seeing them in a different context will. “As soon as it becomes a ‘work of art,’ people stop a lot longer,” Solomon says. “That’s just the magic of art—it slows the moment down.” SRQ

Continuum
ERIC DEVER | MIKE SOLOMON | SUSAN VECSEY | FRANK WIMBERLEY
October 9 - 12, 2020

At the same time, quarantine has compelled artists to connect with their communities in new ways. Jeremy Dennis, a tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, is known for his photographs exploring issues of Indigenous identity and cultural assimilation. With exhibits and photoshoots cancelled, he now works with his father to restore the family’s house on the Shinnecock reservation. It will serve as his home, studio and as a communal art space for an artist residency. Roz Dimon works with the Children’s Museum of the East End to bring art to kids within the Latin American community, Zooming with them, and encouraging them to express their fears and joys. But unlike these artists, Mike Solomon had to leave town in February and head to Florida to care for his 102-year-old mom. While there, he met first responders at the Multicultural Health Institute, an organization dedicated to health care for African Americans. The gripping reality of Black physicians risking their lives—first on the pandemic’s front lines, and then again, walking along the street as people of color—moved Solomon to honor them. In a departure from his abstract paintings and sculpture, he has produced a compelling series of pencil drawings, portraits of Black physicians that unfurl the disturbing personal and political imperatives underlying this coronavirus saga.

This evolving archival project hanging on a video grid invites us into artists’ studios, to glimpse their stuff amidst their artworks, to glean the curator’s response to today’s predicament for artists and museums, and to preserve an intimate anthology of artists’ stories during the pandemic.

10 x 10
Ten Slides Ten Speakers

Art Ovation, Sarasota, Florida
October 3, 2019
5:30 - 7:00 pm

Frank Alcock, Karen Arango, Bill Buchman, Jetson Grimes, Cooper Levey-Baker, Joan Libby-Hawk, Steve Phelps, Shakira Refos, Mike Solomon, Javier Suarez

Summer may be halfway over, womp womp, but there is still time to brighten up and refresh your space with artwork. Whether you want to add pops of color to your living room or do a full-blown redo of your house, we’ve got five solid tips on how to incorporate artwork into your home to give it that new look. 

1. Add Pops of Color

To bring your home to life, swap in some light color abstract paintings for wall décor. Any pop of color will brighten the room, giving it a new, cozy and inviting feel. Colorful artwork is perfect for any neutral color walls in the home, and a simple painting can do the trick!

2. Showcase High-End Pieces

If you are an avid art collector or have wiggle room in your budget, try adding a vintage art piece to your walls in your home. Syd Solomon, who was a notable American abstract artist, shares work such as the one below which adds an extra touch to any room.

3. Travel Shots

Incorporating one’s vacation pictures on the wall is the perfect way to decorate a home while giving a more personal and natural feel. Saving your vacation photos then throwing it into a beautiful frame can look fantastic in any room, and also shows off your adventures.

4. Art Sculptures

For a livelier feel, homeowners can accessorize their homes with art sculptures that are sure to make any room pop. Art sculptures are terrific because they serve as a unique decoration, but can also be used to fill up a room.



5. Determine a Theme

From florals to bold colors to fun prints, make your home feel like a tropical getaway or a calming cottage to escape to. Landing on a theme in your summer home can help determine the type of art décor you plan to showcase. It’s crucial to incorporate bright, flashy colors to portray warmth and light.