Mike Andrews

Mike Andrews
The Friends and Family Plan
February 21 – March 26, 2016

These are hot fusings of fragments made by many hands. They dip in and out of tactile places and into pictorial zones then back out. I moved into my studio a while ago and have been having the complicated luxury of living with the work I make. I watched the alien glow from the lamp next to the tapestries as the light coming through my studio changed throughout the day. Silent moving crystal sludge crept in proximity to the neighborly soft planes. The collages began with images from a horse calendar that I won at a gay bar in Key West. The fabrics were sourced at Textile Discount Warehouse. I was carrying several large and heavy bolts of fabric to the cutting counter and the ornery owner scolded me for dragging the fabric on the floor because it was getting dirty. He did not offer to help me carry them to the counter. I wove some of the pieces myself. I commissioned loved ones to help make other parts. Some of them know I love them others don’t. The surfaces are uneven and wonky. I unapologetically claim their construction and sources.

This is farm life from somewhere else. What does it take to run this farm? Are the motion lamps the food source for the farmer or the horses? Do they heat the house or do they get the farmer high? How old is the farmer? Is he good at his job? In this reality the farmer lives alone. On this farm the animals take care of him.
— Mike Andrews, 2016

Mike Andrews received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies. He has had exhibitions at Artists Space, NY; OBJEX artspace, Miami; Revolution Gallery, Ferndale, MI; Ross Art Museum, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH: and Galerie Forum St. Eustache, Paris. His shows have been reviewed in the Detroit News; Detroit Metro Times; New Art Examiner; Artnet.com; Compuware; Daimler-Chrysler Financial Services. He has received grants from the Community Arts Assistance Program in Chicago where he lives and works.