NEW/NOW: Michael Salter: Visual Plastic

By Editor at May 25, 2012 | 9:30 am | Print

The New Britain Museum of American Art?s Cheney Gallery will feature Michael A. Salter, the latest artist in the NEW/NOW Exhibition Series. As a self-proclaimed ?obsessive observer,? Salter takes a long look at the icons that overwhelm us by way of mass media and popular culture and transforms them into the source material and inspiration of the work that makes up his exhibition ?Visual Plastic.? His wall murals, figurines, and vinyl sticker compositions speak the language of advertisements, logos, and product placement that characterize our current culture. Rather than simply contributing to the continuous cycle of neon signs and corporate branding with which we are bombarded Salter brings it to a screeching halt and turns it against itself to ?sort out the cacophony of visual noise in order to rethink meaning, motive, perception, and narrative.?

Born in Bristol, Connecticut, Salter now resides in Eugene, Oregon and works as the Director of the Digital Arts Program at the University of Oregon. Aspiring to be a cartoonist from a young age, he graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a double concentration in sculpture and graphic design. He later earned his MFA in studio art from the University of North Caroline, Chapel Hill. Since then, Salter?s work has been shown nationally and internationally in Brussels, New York, Los Angeles, Portland, London, Amsterdam, Miami, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle, Atlanta, and Chicago.

Drawing from a wide range of sources from toy design and animation to signage and kinetic sculpture, Salter convenes a dense web of imagery that, beyond its baffling and humorous exterior, delivers a subtly poignant synopsis and critique of present-day commercialism. The ultimate aim is to invite the viewers to slow down their fast-paced lives and become ?obsessive observers? in their own right.

It will last through August 19.

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