Sculptor Michael Jones McKean explores the nature of contemporary objects and iconography in terms of folklore, technology, anthropology, and mysticism. McKean creates large-scale installations which are materialisations of objects specific to a place in time. His deep interest in time, timescales, and their collapse is investigated through the relationship between contemporary objects and their display as artifact. McKean questions the understood notion of the real and the replica, natural and synthetic by displaying primitive objects such as ancient meteorites and obsolete technologies in conjunction with the objects and technologies which define us today. McKean is interested in the poetic nature of various objects and their materials, suggesting patterns throughout mankind.

McKean is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Nancy Graves Foundation Award and an Artadia Award. McKean has been awarded fellowships and residencies at The Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The MacDowell Colony, The International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York City, The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in New York City. McKean’s work has been exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson in New York, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Parc Saint Leger Centre d’art Contemporain in France, Horton Gallery in New York, The Quebec Biennale, Gentili Apri in Berlin, The Art Foundation in Athens, Inman Gallery in Houston, Parisian Laundry in Montreal, Project Gentili in Prato, Italy, Shenkar University in Tel Aviv, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in North Carolina, and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston among many others. McKean is currently an Associate Professor in the Sculpture + Extended Media Department at Virginia Commonwealth University where he has taught since 2006 and is Co-Director of ASMBLY based in New York City.

CV courtesy of the artist