Michael Reedy, the human body in art

Michael Reedy is an Associate Professor at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches all levels of drawing for the Art Department. He received his MFA in painting from Northern Illinois University in 2000 and a BA Cum Laude from North Central College in 1996.

Portraiture and the human figure have been central to his artistic practice for the past fifteen years. Reedy identifies a particular interest in depictions of the human body that fall outside the canon of art history, such as cartooning and medical illustration. By mixing influences from both within and outside the accepted boundaries of fine art, Reedy aspires to locate unique areas of resistance, which he believes essential to the production of new meaning. His more recent works have also been heavily influenced by a growing fascination with the role of spectacle within contemporary pop culture. In these works, the final images are manipulated digitally to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect when viewed with the proper red/cyan glasses and tap in to the play-like celebration of day time soap opera narratives with an evenly weighted sense of enticement and superficial sensationalism.

His work has been widely exhibited across the United States in a variety of local, regional, national, and international exhibitions, recognized with numerous awards, and can be viewed in many notable private and institutional collections, including Clatsop Community College, Minot State University, Shippensburg University, and the Hoffman Trust National Collection in association with the San Diego Art Institute.
Michael Reedy
Feb 20, 2012