Michael Childress
Overview
Portrait, Michael Childress, 2025. Photo: ©Shabez Jamal.
Michael Childress' modular canvases consist of rectangular units that are spaced and stacked vertically in combinations of registers, exploring languages of minimalism and geometric abstraction as ways to embody and delineate space.
Childress has long been interested in the way that abstraction provides a language to describe complex reality through simplified spatial models, often using them as points of entry to ponder the mechanics of the universe.
Known for his stained canvases that combine hard-edge geometries with fluid transitions of color, Childress creates compositions that serve as field recordings for invisible forces like gravity and surface tension at play. Whereas in his canvases, circular forms saturate and radiate outward; in his newer panels, he flips the two-dimensional circle on its side in favor of the rectilinear. Graphite drawings referencing the hourglass-shaped schematic feature rotating discs along a central axis, alluding to both wavelengths of light emanating at various widths and distances as well as panoramic images cycling before a stationary viewer.
Turning to plywood as a substrate, Childress complicates the relationship between image and object, catapulting what is typically designated as a frame or support into the foreground. Against a backdrop of shifting fields of color are centralized vignettes resembling washy, painterly landscapes, reminiscent of en plein air watercolors the artist has made in recent years. These impressionistic snapshots are analogous to photons at the moment of perception, moving across space and time in the way that memories focus and fade in our minds.
Michael Childress (b. 1987, MA) has had solo exhibitions at HESSE FLATOW, New York, NY; New Release, New York, NY; New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA; Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, France; Lane Meyer Projects, Denver, CO; and Cuevas Tilleard, New York, and been included in group exhibitions at Pt. 2 Gallery, Oakland, CA; Marvin Gardens, New York, NY; Future Gallery, Berlin, Germany; HESSE FLATOW, New York, NY; Half Gallery, New York, NY; Pray For This Gallery, New York, NY; False Flag, New York, NY; Radiator Arts, New York, NY; among others. He is a recipient of the Leslie-Lohman Museum Queer Artists Fellowship and has completed a residency at AS220 (Providence, RI). Childress earned a BFA from the University of Massachusetts in 2009. He lives and works in Florence, Massachusetts.
Works
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Michael ChildressA Limit / A Fluid Plane / A Boundary, Incinerated, 2023Acrylic and ink on canvas36 x 36 in
91.4 x 91.4 cm -
Michael ChildressBehold, Beheld, 2023Acrylic on unprimed canvas36 x 36 inches
91.4 x 91.4 cm -
Michael ChildressConceptual Object, 2023Acrylic on unprimed canvas36 x 36 inches
91.4 x 91.4 cm -
Michael ChildressLuna Moth, 2023Acrylic on unprimed canvas24 x 24 in
61 x 61 cm -
Michael ChildressPlants That Open Doors, 2023Acrylic on unprimed canvas36 x 36 in
91.4 x 91.4 cm -
Michael ChildressProjective Yawn (Time’s Gaping Maw), 2023Acrylic on unprimed canvas24 x 24 in
61 x 61 cm -
Michael ChildressSimplex / Orbital Exchange, 2023Acrylic on unprimed canvas36 x 36 in
91.4 x 91.4 cm -
Michael ChildressSplitting Apart / Coming Together, 2023Acrylic on unprimed canvas36 x 36 in
91.4 x 91.4 cm
Exhibitions
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Michael Childress
Toward Ourselves in an Unknown January 9 - February 7, 2026 TRIBECAHESSE FLATOW is pleased to announce the opening of Toward Ourselves in an Unknown , a solo exhibition featuring graphite drawings, stained composite panels, and a bench collaboration by Michael...Read more -
Even In Arcadia There I Am
Curated by Andrew Gardner January 10 - February 8, 2025 TRIBECA“...how is it that that particular, not overly opulent, region of central Greece, Arcady, came to be universally accepted as an ideal realm of perfect bliss and beauty, a dream...Read more -
Full Disclosure: Selections from the Thomas-Suwall Collection
Plains Art Museum April 20 - October 20, 2024 INSTITUTIONALRob and Eric Thomas-Suwall – known online by their moniker, The Icy Gays or @theicygays – acquired their first artwork, Corydon Cowansage’s Stairs #3 , seven years ago after discovering...Read more -
Trodden Path
July 22 - August 31, 2023 AMAGANSETTHESSE FLATOW is proud to present Trodden Path , featuring the works of 17 artists: Beverly Acha, Louise Belcourt, Sarah Blaustein, Michael Childress, Carl D’Alvia, Tara Geer, Elizabeth Hazan, Virva...Read more -
Michael Childress
HUB January 6 - February 18, 2023Read more -
Michael Childress
Equivalents June 3 - July 1, 2022OPENING RECEPTION: June 3, 6-8PM HESSE FLATOW is pleased to announce the opening of Equivalents , an exhibition of paintings by Michael Childress, marking his first solo presentation with the...Read more
Press
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Michael Childress, "The Small Exceeds" in Office
Michael Childress, Julia Gray , Office Magazine, August 19, 2017 -
What to See in New York Art Galleries This Wee
Roberta Smith, Holland Cotter and Martha Schwendener, The New York Times, August 10, 2017 -
Michael Childress by Susan Jennings
Susan Jennings, Bomb Magazine, September 15, 2016
News
Art Fairs
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Aspen Art Fair 2026
July 29 - August 1, 2026HESSE FLATOW is pleased to participate in the 2026 Aspen Art Fair , with a group presentation of new and recent works by Bix Archer,...Read more -
Intersect Aspen 2023
Sarah Blaustein, Michael Childress, Amanda Martínez, and Jonathan Ryan August 1 - 4, 2023HESSE FLATOW is pleased to participate in Intersect Aspen 2023 with a presentation of works by Sarah Blaustein, Michael Childress, Amanda Martínez, and Jonathan Ryan....Read more -
EXPO CHICAGO 2023
Amanda Baldwin, Aglaé Bassens, Michael Childress, Carl D'Alvia, Kirsten Deirup, Nat Meade, and Luis Edgar Mejicanos April 13 - 16, 2023HESSE FLATOW is pleased to participate in EXPO CHICAGO 2023 with a presentation of works by Amanda Baldwin, Aglaé Bassens, Michael Childress, Carl D'Alvia, Kirsten...Read more -
UNTITLED Miami Beach 2022
AGLAÉ BASSENS, MICHAEL CHILDRESS, SONIA LOUISE DAVIS, ADAMA DELPHINE FAWUNDU, NAT MEADE, LUIS EDGAR MEJICANOS, ALINA TENSER November 28 - December 3, 2022Hours: VIP & Press Preview Monday November 28, 1pm – 8pm General Admission Tuesday November 29, 11am – 7pm Wednesday November 30, 11am – 7pm...Read more
Events
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