Green martini (2021) Painting by Mike Smoller

I am a self-taught artist and my first works in June, 1975 (“Mirror Image of the Real World – Positive” and “Mirror Image of the Real World – Negative”) look as though they were mimics of  Barnett Newman's “zip” paintings of the 1950's (although I did not even know of his work until very recently).  I painted in this style for the next 20 years or so, never even considering selling any works or seeking gallery representation.   

After a long hiatus, the second phase of my art began in 2012 with a series of works based on the subject of Lies, exploring new methods of expression and materials (“Tapestry of Lies”, “Pyramid of Lies”, “Pack of Lies”, etc.).   Experimentation continued with a dot matrix portrait (“Dots Christina”) and even “assemblage” (“Damaged Babies”).  But the real rebirth of my artistic vision was a return to the hard edge genre which I had last worked with decades before - the box light sculpture entitled “41” (2013) using acrylic film.   I liked it so much that I followed it with an entire series of nine more related box light sculptures, followed by a series of ten "pole" light sculptures using the same materials.  

By this point I had been creating abstract art for nearly forty years. In the beginning my works were very precise and technical using hard edge techniques.  During that period my artistic vision was sharp, clear and easy to convey.  The images were self contained and self defined, and I could imagine the completed work even before pigment ever touched canvas.  But in September 2013, as an experiment, I painted “Between Here and There”, a radical departure from my previous expression of abstraction in that it had no hard lines or clear patterns.  This led to a continued exploration of this more loosely constrained vocabulary with the “TTH” series of paintings containing eight works.  All of my recent works (since 2019) have used this  loosened vocabulary.  The very first work during this period defines the central question:  “How do you know when it's done?” Unlike virtually all of my previous work, there was no preset final image to express.  Each painting evolved and matured during the painting process until it reached the point at which I felt that continuing would lessen the work.

• Nationality: UNITED STATES
• Date of birth : 1958
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary American Artists