Painting Works: 2008 - 2020
Mike Childs

Artist Statement: 

Mike Childs is a New York-based painter from Toronto, Ontario. This presentation of his work at ChaShaMa includes 8 paintings that survey major elements developed in his work from 2008 to 2020. The formal approaches and compositional elements seen here reflect his propensity to view the world as a series of starts and stops. He views his paintings as images which employ both one perspective, and several at the same time. Writing about Mike’s recent 2020 solo show at David Richard Gallery critic David Rhodes noted in the Brooklyn Rail that “…this is the true quality of our ongoing experience: fractured, fluid, split.” Rhodes went on to point out that the paintings (influenced heavily by construction sites, walls, graffiti as well as contemporary and modern architecture) seek to put different views together. Shortly after his arrival to New York, Childs frequently observed and his paintings were influenced by the multiplicity of grids, and subtle shifts in color and light seen in midtown Manhattan at sunset. This 3rd Avenue late modernist venue thus has a special significance for this exhibit. 

Courtesy of David Richard Galleries

About the Artist:

Born in Toronto, Mike Childs received his BFA from the University of Guelph, Canada, and an MFA from Florida State University. He is the recipient of several awards including a 2006 Pollock-Krasner Grant and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Project Award. At 26 he received an award to live, paint and teach in Florence, Italy from Florida State that cemented his desire to work in an urban environment. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented by David Richard Gallery, where he has had numerous solo and two person shows. He maintains a studio in the south Bronx. Recent shows include David Richard Gallery’s 2020, Wave Hill’s In The Real World, ABC No Rio and Streaming, eight painters featured on Instagram.