West Bend, WI – The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA), 205 Veterans Avenue, West Bend, WI, presents Lon Michels, Disrupting Patterns through January 21, 2024.
During a one-on-one interview with artist Lon Michels he talked in depth about his art, inspiration, and his appreciation for the Museum of Wisconsin Art.
“Really MOWA is a a breath of fresh air on a cloudy day,” said Michels.
He described his art as “a labor of love.”
“I work 17-hour days some days and I really love that connection I have with perhaps something greater than myself,” Michels said. ” I really feel I have to get out of my own way to create and that means leaving all the baggage at home and all the problems at the
doorstep of my studio.”
“Nothing that’s really worth anything is ever really too easy so but it becomes prayer and meditation for me, and I’ve really dedicated in my life to painting and hopefully I’ll have something to give back.”
Lon Michels: Disrupting Patterns is a mid-career retrospective of the Lodi-based painter. Early works date from Michels’s twenty-something years in New York after he fled a repressive childhood in rural Wisconsin for the freedom—creative and otherwise—promised by the Big Apple. His magnetic personality and distinctive style caught the attention of the art establishment: Michels spent his days as an assistant to sculptor Louise Nevelson and his nights hobnobbing at Andy Warhol’s Factory. From Nevelson, Michels learned the significance of scale and the power of constructed environments. Warhol’s conception of celebrity affirmed his penchant for brilliant color and his inclination to highlight the individual.
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The exhibition is FREE and open to the public.
