RAIR | 2008-09

Michael Stillion

Michael Stillion is an artist living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design and an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. Michael has been the recipient of fellowships to various artist-in-residence programs, and he has been awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award multiple times. He is a visiting assistant professor at Miami University and is represented by Linda Warren Projects in Chicago, Illinois.

http://www.michaelstillion.com


The Monster Hour

On the Monster Hour, there was this monster that used to come out and try to kill everybody in the audience. No one expected it, not even the producers who were told by the monster he would play a few blues tunes on the piano. The monster apologized after each show and asked for another chance. I'm planning on telling a few jokes this time he would say. But time after time he'd break his word and try to kill everybody. The producers finally replaced him with a gorilla dressed in people clothes that came out and played a Wurlitzer, but they never changed the name of the show. It was always the Monster Hour. I don't think anybody understood then what a monster really was. 

—Zachary Schomburg, The Man Suit

Roswell Museum and Art Center

Rair exhibition • Michael Stillion “Wheels of Fire" • May 16 - June 21, 2009

Michael Stillion creates paintings, drawings, and collages that draw from visual sources and memories which have impacted him emotionally and visually throughout his life. His current body of work explores a fascination inspired from his childhood: monsters. Elements of the artworks—expressions, themes, compositions —are often appropriated directly from centuries-old masterworks, an aspect which contributes to a haunting, classical mood expressed in many of the works. Simultaneously, there is a playfulness and humor achieved through witnessing the tragic plights of the forlorn creatures—a feeling of schadenfreude (taking pleasure in the misery of others); a perhaps acceptable fate for these ordinarily child-terrorizing creatures. An amalgamation of Stillion's imagination and experiences, his monsters are a visual blend of both what fascinates and haunts him.

Caroline Brooks, Assistant Director, Roswell Museum and Art Center