Michael DeSutter

STATEMENT

“My love of collage is the result of a desire to understand the world of my grandfather and to intimately investigate another place and time. I deconstruct imagery from the past, much like a mechanic disassembles an engine, to understand how it functions. By re-assembling these pieces in new ways, I create a new visual world that exists between his past and my present. My visual identity lives at the cross section of two predominant interests: the human experience and how we process information.

The desire to work with vintage print material is born out of a quest to understand the human experience. Decades old magazines, newspapers and notebooks are filled with human interest pieces that will never be recorded alongside more significant historical events. The past is ripe with stories of individuals and cultures who underwent similar paradigm shifts to what we experience today; one can imagine the first telephone was met with the same skepticism and awe as the first iPhone.

Following the release of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, I became fascinated with the idea that our brains analyzes information using one of two systems: 1) Autopilot, which is fast, intuitive and rooted in emotions and 2) Intentional, which is used when we need to process more complex ideas. To make things as easy as possible, we continually try to move information over to System 1, which requires less effort to process. This is how we can read a misspelled word and still understand the writer’s original intention; we jump to conclusions. I enjoy challenging this predisposition by connecting similar lines between clippings and creating movement which, at first glimpse, appears far more seamless than it really is.”

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023, L.A. Made, Tappan, Los Angeles, CA

2023, Apeiron, Tappan, Los Angeles, CA

2022, Gradiance, Gallery Umico, Los Angeles, CA

2021, 9-5, New Collection, Denver, CO

2021, OpenBach Residence, OpenBach Galerie, Paris, FR

2021, Thought Objects: Being Essence and Notion, Alto Gallery, Denver, CO

2021, Three Acts: A Survey of Shame, Emotion, and Oblivion, Redline, Denver, CO

2019, Copyright Bandits, Collapse Gallery, Wenatchee, WA

2017, Brooklyn vs. Sydney II, Chinatown Soup, New York, NY

2017, Direct Message, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2016, Cut&Taste, Chinatown Soup, New York, NY

2016, Vitamin C, Rabbithole Studios, Brooklyn, NY

2016, Paper Cuts 2, Alameda, CA

2016, The International Weird Collage Show, Barcelona, SP

2016, Unstable Portals, Brooklyn, NY

2016, CUTPASTE3, Santa Ana, CA

2016, Hanafuda Project, Ace Hotel, New York, NY

2015, Al-soqi & DeSutter, Thrive Okapi, Thrive, Brooklyn, NY

2015, Community54 - Ave B, Manhattan, NY

2015, Brooklyn Vs. London, Something in the Attic, Carousel Gallery, London, UK

2015, Bushwick Open Studios, Troutman Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2015, Brooklyn Collage Collective, Dateline Gallery, Denver, CO

2015, Cut & Paste, Sugarlift, Brooklyn, NY

2015, The War of Art, Safari Gallery, Soho, NY

2015, #NoFilter, Safari Gallery, Soho, NY

2015, Group Show, Greenpoint Gallery, Greenpoint NY

For full CV please contact Tappan

EDUCATION

2003, BS, Art Studies with a Concentration in Photography, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN