Mike Chattem
In my practice themes about home take the form of regional tropes, local observations and personal moments of domestic meditation. Having lived in the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast, I feel a broad sentiment to the American condition. From brunch to the opioid crisis; Dunkin’ Donuts cups, corn-cobs and cam girls, my work is informed by and probes our nations’ mundane, vibrant and capital fueled psyche.
Inspired by an array of art historical periods including Russian constructivism, Funk art and the Chicago Imagists, my paintings take a collage like form that freely alternates between the boundaries of wall work and sculpture. I work with a combo of industrial, commercial and traditional materials and the resultant works are hyper tactile. Chunky composites of colored pencil drawings and textural painting gestures are installed into maquette style landscapes that spill out beyond the edges of their supports. I’m interested in the phenomenological quality of lived experience and celebrate with an emphasis on playfulness and humor. At the end of the day the works are relics of idiosyncratic determination; möbius totems and alchemical opportunities seized among the sensory over-filled backdrop of my sights and wonderings.
Mike Chattem (b.1988, Queens, NY) was raised in New England and now lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He holds a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and has shown in spaces throughout the US includ- ing Hashimoto Contemporary (Los Angeles, CA), Ortega Y Gasset (Brooklyn, NY) SOIL gallery (Seattle, WA), La Luz De Jesus Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Adelphi University (Garden City, NY), the SPRING/ BREAK Art Show (New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA) and the Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA). His curatorial projects include Galaxy Brain at St. J in Los Angeles, CA in 2019, Hot Spring at the SPRING/ BREAK Art Show in Los Angeles, CA in 2022 and Weird Flowers at Curve Line Space in Los Angeles, CA in 2023. His work has been featured in the publications New American Paintings and ArtsinSquare.
