Artist Statement

My abstract paintings echo the cacophony of urban life today. The competing surface tensions confront each other, creating a visual orchestration of discordant and harmonic tonalities. The compositions, resembling visual soundscapes, explore the notion of depth, both spatial and psychological. The chromatic intensity of my palate—densely pigmented colors applied in layers, yielding smeared and collided passages—is seductive in its tonality, yet retains a sense of distance. Countless thick layers of acrylic paint are juxtaposed with sections of raw linen that evoke holes in a membrane. The construction of my work is a kind of building—in the process, I use mud-knives instead of paintbrushes to model heavy acrylic, constructing organic volumes and architectonic planes. Vibrant skins stretch across the canvas to embrace a complex web of ideas, emotions, and textures.

Background

I was born in North Dakota in 1951 and lived there until the age of thirteen. Thereafter, I lived part-time in California, where I eventually started my art education.

From the mid-1960s to the early ’80s, I was directly affected by the culture of the Bay Area. Its music, art, and politics, especially the UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the Black Panther Party, made me acutely aware of pressing social issues. Radio station KDIA, the premier jazz, funk, and soul outlet for the East Bay and San Francisco Bay area, transformed my understanding of what music is. The Oakland and San Francisco art museums taught me what it was to be a Bay Area artist. The redwood forests and the wild, rugged Northern California Pacific coastline showed me the power of the natural world. After receiving my MA in 1979 in metal fabrication, I earned an MFA in mixed media plastic arts from San Jose State University in 1981. In 1984, I was awarded a grant by the French ministry of culture to live and exhibit in Paris, Grenoble, and Nice. In France, my San Francisco Bay Area experiences resurfaced and drove me to painting. After looking at the work of Figuration Libre painters in France, as well as images by German and Italian Neo-Figurative artists, I began to blend those movements with what I had absorbed earlier on the West Coast.

In 1987 I moved to New York City, often traveling back and forth to Europe before settling permanently in the downtown Tribeca neighborhood in 1992. My struggle to achieve maturity in painting, which involved a shift to expressive abstraction, came to fruition after the World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001. The morning of September 11, I was in my studio when I heard the first plane hit. I immediately went into the streets with my wife, the artist Ruth Hardinger. As we rounded the corner on West Broadway, looking ten blocks south just after the second tower was hit, I asked Ruth, “How the fuck are we going to fix that?” This question remains central to my critical thinking today.

Career Highlights

I have shown at institutional venues such as the Sunshine International Museum and the National Art Museum of China, both in Beijing; the Museo Civico d’Arte Contemporanea, Albissola, Italy; the Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Art. My solo exhibitions have taken place at Core Club, Unix Gallery, David & Schweitzer Contemporary, Morris-Warren Gallery, Barbara Greene Fine Art, Tama Gallery, and FiveMyles, all in New York; Art Virus LTD and Thomas Punzmann Fine Art, Frankfurt, Germany; Museo Civico d’Arte Contemporanea, Albissola, Italy; Galerie Bercovy-Fugier, Paris; Galerie Capazza, Paris/Nançay, France; Galerie Christine Le Chanjour, Nice, France; and Gallery Jean Yves Noblet, Paris/Grenoble, France. Art fair appearances include FICA, Paris; ArtFair, Cologne; and Arco, International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid. My work has been reviewed in Art in America, Art News, Artcritical, Black Renaissance Noire, Art Daily, and numerous other publications.

2003

• 100 Broadway Exhibition Program, New York City, curated by Suzanne Randolph Fine Arts

2001

• Recent Paintings, Barbara Greene Fine Art, New York City
• “Razing Space, The New Paintings of C. Michael Norton” Galerie Terre d’Art, St. Paul de Vence, France

1992

• “Albissola/America/Arte” Museo Civico d’Arte Contemporanea, Albissola, Italy
  Galerie Capazza, Paris/Nancay, Nancay, France

1990

• Galerie Bercovy-Fugier, Paris, France

1985

• Gallery 30, San Mateo, California

1984

• Galerie Christine Le Chanjour, Nice, France Galerie Jean-Yves Noblet, Paris, Grenoble, France

1983

• Markham Gallery/Museum Services, San Jose, California

1981

• San Jose State University, San Jose, California

2008

• Sunshine International Museum Annual Art Exhibition, Beijing, China curated by Peter Wayne Lewis
• Collaborative Concepts at Saunders Farm, Garrison, NY
• Union Square West Group Exhibition (Tama Gallery), New York, NY
• “Inside/Outside,” Maxwell Fine Art, New York City

2007

• “Sudden Spring Suite,” Tama, New York City

2004

• “Precipitations London Biennale New York Pollinations,” The Lab Gallery,
• The Roger Smith Hotel, New York City, curated by Koan Jeff Baysa

2001-02

• Barbara Greene Fine Art, New York City

2000-02

• Galerie Terre d’Art, St. Paul de Vence, France

1990-98

• Galerie Capazza, Paris/Nancay France

1989-91

• Galerie Bercovy-Fugier, Paris, France
• Salon International D’Arts Plastiques de Valognes, France
• Galerie Bercovy-Fugier, Paris, France

1986

• Zeus-Trabia Gallery, New York City

1985

• San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California
• Arco, International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain
• Solan de Montruge, Pairs, France

1984

• Gallery 30, San Mateo, California

2013

• “Over The Top” by Stephen Westfall, artdaily.com (July 2013)

2007

• “Sudden Springs Suite” by Koan Jeff Baysa
• “The Sudden Spring Series” by Koan Jeff Baysa, dArt International 
 (volume 10, number 1), Miami, Florida
• “Tactile Abpressionism” by Koan Jeff Baysa, NY Arts
 (March/April 2007)

2004

• “Wrangled Tebs” by Koan Jeff Baysa

2001

• “Razing Spaces: The New Paintings by C. Michael Norton” 
 by Dominique Nahas

1990

• “C. Michael Norton: From the Comedy of America to the 
 Ceremony of Life” by Isabelle Coera

1987

• C. Michael Norton, featured artist, Peninsula Magazine 
 (April 1987), San Francisco, California

1986

• Exhibition 86, 11th Annual Great American Arts Festival, 
 Santa Clara, California (Alena Willcoxon/Eileen Hill/Bee Wax)

1985

• “C Michael Norton” by Jacqueline Blance, Galerie Le Chanjour, 
 Nice, France, Kanal Magazine (January 1985)

1984

• Awarded exhibition and residency grants from Ministere de la
 Culture, Paris, France, Commission d’orientation des artes 
 plastiques, Grenoble, France

1977

Bachelor of Arts, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California