Michael Stasiuk
Michael Stasiuk is a multimedia sculptor who lives and maintains a studio in Portsmouth, NH. His found object sculptures are represented in private and corporate collections including The Art Complex Museum, The Tobias Lear House, The Museum of Old York, Wellington Management and New England Biolab. He is included in the Schiffer Found Object Art 1 and 2 books. Greenhut Galleries of Portland, ME and The Page Gallery of Camden, ME represent his work. He credits two decades as a gallery artist with Mary Harding of the George Marshall Store Gallery in York, Maine; as well as Meredith Moses of the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA.
Michael works with a child-like sensibility fueled by many years of teaching and collaborating with children and adults. He was the theatrical Propmaster for the Mudd Butt Mystery Theatre Troupe in Telluride, Colorado for 28 years collaborating with children and adults around the world bringing characters of all sizes to life in a variety of materials.
Michael has taught at Haystack Monson, Arrowmount and Pocosin Schools for the Arts, and has been the featured guest artist with the Ah Haa School’s New Year’s Eve Gala in 2014 as well as a guest installation artist in 2023 at the school in Telluride.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“Refashioned” is a body of work created from my inventory of found objects on the theme of fashion. Individually, the pieces in this show are standing figures that suggest stories inspired by the objects from which they were made.
The theme of “fashion” was a prompt for these creations. In some instances these are figures wearing “assembled ensembles” fabricated from materials other than fabric. Some of the objects I collected specifically for this show. The more than 60 containers in my studio are filled with tools, toys, furniture parts, and various things of interest that I have collected for over 30 years.
The work in this show borrows from popular styles and some cultural icons.
The starting inspiration almost always comes from the objects. The end result is a collection representing “on and off the runway.”
