Michael Stillion is an Artist, Teacher and Curator living in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design and his MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. Michael is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Miami University where he teaches painting and drawing.

 

His honors include being twice awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, a Joan Mitchell full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center and a full year fellowship to the Roswell Artist in Residence. His work has also been exhibited in venues such as the Columbus Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Roswell Museum of Art, Marshall University, Art Chicago and SpringBreak Art Show, New York. His work has been featured in publications such as Art Maze Magazine and New American Paintings. He is currently represented by Smith & Co.

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"In these bodies of work, I am interested in blending still life and landscape with inanimate figures and portraiture," explains Stillion in an artist statement. "What inspires me in the studio is wide ranging – cartoons, a worn drive thru sign in my neighborhood, cigarettes my grandma smoked, Lizzo and a Van Eyck grisaille painting titled the Annunciation. While these inspirations may seem incongruous, their combined effect has been my creation of a vocabulary of symbols and compositions. Vases filled with red flowers bend and press on the edges of the picture, shoes and gloves contort to provide a compressed tension and smoke creates a curtain of shadows. Everything is on display and open for interpretation."

 

To learn more about Michael Stillion, visit michaelstillion.com