I spent 2.5 weeks at Central China Normal University teaching and workshop and making some collaborative work with new media artist Chris Coleman. We put up a show titled 'Evidence of Intensive', we each lectured, and we were treated with incredible generosity by our hosts. We ate like kings and were toured some amazing sights. Some photos in the campus news here Now we are in Beijing at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Again, teaching a workshop and lecturing, though this time we are creating a 6 poster series to be exhibited next week. All images, elements and features of the drawings have been created in China by Chris and myself. The pace is rigorous but this is a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so deeply inspired, I simply refuse to rest until I return home. There is even talk of building a giant styrobot at 798 art district. hell yes I love this country.

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Jan 28th, the Coleman and Mehran dynamic denver art duo had me swing by the University of Denver Emerging Digital Practices home turf and share some insights on professional practice with students. Smart people, I like smart people.

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Now on exhibit, Jan 24 - Mar 22, Styrobot, Nothing Comes from Nothing at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Gallery of Contemporary Art.

read my interview with the Colorado Springs Gazette

or read my interview with the UCCS Scribe

or even read my interview with the Colorado Springs Independent

way to go Colorado Springs, that's a lot of interviews.

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the beautiful, thoughtful and conscientiously curated magazine/artists book Bailliwik issue 09 has just been released. I'm proud to be in it and you can preview it here.

cool little flash thingy the New Britain Museum of Art posted with my icons

my solo exhibition Visual Plastic opens May 17, 2012 at the New Britain Museum of American Art

its all new work and I'm thrilled to see it installed. The venue is a gem of an institution and everyone there was a treat to work with.

my graphics on apparel can be bought here

10/06/11
Gage Hamilton interviewed me for the Converse blog. I love that kid.
check it out here

Strychnin Gallery's 'Gentle Giants' will showcase a diverse selection of some of the most influential and innovative robots as art done by a select group of artists. The exhibition will focus on the gentle, smart, helping and human aspects of robots that are enriching our society.
The list of participating artists
includes: Michael Salter, Himatic,
Doktor A, Mike Libby, Skeleton
Heart, Seymour, Nemo Gould, John
Lytle Wilson, SQUP, Caroline
LeBreton, Stefan Fromberger and
many more. opens July 15
Strychnin Gallery - Boxhagenerstr. 36 - 10245 Berlin
Tel.: +493097002035 - www.strychnin.com - PR: Michael Niedzwicki

chris coleman and I get around a little.....

Lithium Project, art gallery in Napoli, Italy.
March and April 2011

Exhibition title:% Burning Billboard and 4 Houses%
Michael Salter and Chris Coleman

Lithium Gallery

Spaces Gallery, art gallery, Cleveland, OH
Feb-April 2011

Group show, exhibition title, The Vault

Spaces Gallery

Project 4 presents :
DRIVE BY
Kim Beck
Martyn Blundell
Zlatko Cosic
Sarah McKenzie
Michael A. Salter
Gregory Thielker

February 5 - March 5, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 5, 2011 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

you can view all of my collaboration pieces with Chris Coleman at his vimeo site, most notably the newest ones to the series, "My House Is Not My House"

one

another

...my old colleague, dear friend, and co conspirator Chris Coleman has been invited to show with LITHIUM PROJECT. A space whose primary programming is motivated by new media and motion, most often on discreet, unique screens. Chris and I have collaborated for years on our series of animations portraying banal suburban scenes loaded with accidents, paranoia and rabbits. These animations will be in Chris' show opening in Naples, Italy at LITHIUM PROJECTS friday sept 17.

just to keep my summer interesting, as soon as the IDSA conference ends I'll jet to the adidas world headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany to give a lecture about my work. ....honored, flattered, grateful..........kinda bragging.

heads up portland. I am bringing a 4.33 m styrobot to be standing proud at the IDSA conference this week, 8/4-8/7. I will also be a speaker at the conference, talking about my career and its relationship with the DIY ethic. I look forward to the whole experience. The styrobot that will be in this conference is a commission by Ziba Design, as after the conference this styrobot will be headed to Ziba's slick office lobby. I can't wait to see it in its final resting place. When I make something this sizable and its site-specific, its a rush to see it in its place.

the progressive corp's new website about their culture of social responsibility is up and out there.

the link

I drew 32 icons and a handful of graphic icon arrangements this winter for Progressive. H. Scott Westover is the corporate curator and he acted as the art director with me and for some of the applied usage of the icons. A consummate professional every step of the way, Progressive is very fortunate to have such a sharp curator. The entire project was fast and furious but no care or thought were sacrificed. Creatively the images were a pleasure to develop. They'll be installing a giant wall graphic of all the icons mashed-up at the corporate office and I can't wait to see images of it. Their collection will also exhibit 10 select icons as works on paper.

I have been commissioned by the Progressive® Corporation for a multi-layered project. Developing 30 icons representative of their corporate mission, 10 of which will be curated into the Progressive® Corporate art collection as large drawings and one massive graphic 'mash-up' will exist as a site specific vinyl wall sticker. Many of the icons will be applied to web use. Curator, H. Scott Westover, and I are working closely together as I visually communicate concepts like trust, respect, integrity, empowerment, and a long list of other beautiful ideas and ethics in my unusual reductive-icon language.

a long and challenging summer in a multitude of ways. I drove the styrobot to Wichita Kansas, by myself, in 2 days. 11 hours the first day, 18 the next. I shudder when I recall the drive. The piece arrived without issue and went up with ease. This is the first time I installed a styrobot with a small friend. The Ulrich Museum of Art curator, Emily Stamey, has been a pleasure to work with and I consider myself, once again, quite lucky to work with such professionals. Tomorrow, 09/24, I give a lecture at Wichita State University after doing a few studio visits on campus.

Think.21 Gallery has started a new blog so their artists can have another platform to keep the world up to date on our work. Think.21 Blog

I lost the small claims court judgment against me from the botched Miami shipping to Pulse. The judges decision means I owe the shipper 3200$. Sad but true.

Looks like the world according to art collectors remains frozen, from my diminutive point of view. I still swear those new 3D pieces I showed in Brussels last spring are great, at least I'd want them, and that's usually a good sign. So we wait, and watch, and wait some more.

No major announcements for the near future. I am starting some new pieces; massive amounts of my vinyl stickers on panels, and smaller versions of the wall hung 3D pieces I previously mentioned.

This is all I really know, and it's not much; I love making things and I love for people to see the things I make.

Jeff Bailey dropped me a note the other day to tell me that my 'subzero' sculptures have been published in •Best New York Art 2008•. A pleasant surprise indeed.

find it at amazon

if 9:26 isn't enough of me rambling there is now the UO Today Show interview which is 28:53 in length. It aired on television, on obscure channels, at unusual times, throughout limited areas. Of course this longer interview includes a somewhat out-dated introduction to the program which could be confused as simply straight stock video from any university campus. They were wonderful folks over at the UO Humanities Center who conducted and delivered the interview, but man that first 30 seconds is brutal.

see my half hour here

there is a brief interview with me rambling about what influences my vision at the Rice Gallery site. Its just me. up close and personal.

link here

or link here

I have used the same company to negotiate the shipping logistics on all my work from Oregon since I came here 4 years ago. I take great pride in my discipline of preparedness, yet when pulling off an installation cross country the unknown variables are out of my control. The company I trusted with the time critical shipment of a special project installation for Pulse failed to have the piece shipped as agreed upon. It arrived during the VIP opening. The piece was successfully installed for the remainder of the Pulse Miami Art Fair. I was curated in to an excellent space just outside the collector's lounge. The 3 days prior to the installation were spent unravelling what simply appears now to have been an oversight by the company I previously trusted with my big art shipments. ...an oversight.....how incredibly disappointing. I must thank the Pulse directors, staff, security and everyone else who treated me with sympathy and patience during the nightmare. Many gallerists seemed to understand shipping issues and were supportive and consoling. I still feel sick and angry at the company who caused such a huge problem for me. The Think.21 gallery booth was beautiful, I will say now that the HELLO MONSTERS are amazing and they are going to go big with Think.21. Just to keep things interesting, a quick trip to the doctor when I got home results in steroidal nasal spray and antibiotics...ahhh the glamorous life of the artist. pics of the installation will be up shortly.

I am in Miami to install a 16ft styrobot at the Pulse Art Fair. Despite the frightening hotel I am staying in, I enjoy the weirdness that is Miami. Within walking distance of this crime-scene of a hotel room I can get Honduran, Peruvian and of course Cuban food. I will only be here to do the installation and I'll return to finish teaching the last few classes of the fall quarter, unfortunately missing all the fairs which open after I split. The piece I am putting in Pulse is a special project proposal submitted in cooperation with Think.21 Gallery. The piece is available for purchase and we hope to discuss the potential of a site-specific aluminum cast version with anyone interested. The idea is that any cast Styrobot would be one-of-a-kind, and it would of course be site-specific.

my hotel tv has no remote.

The Pulse Miami Art Fair

my nasty hotel

too much is my latest installation now at Rice Gallery http://www.ricegallery.org and it it up from nov6 -dec14. It was certainly an exhausting installation to complete, but with the skilled and hard working staff, especially David Krueger the gallery preparator, it went off without a hitch. The gallery itself operates with machine-like precision and I am so impressed with the execution of every aspect of the show process by Rice Gallery. I honored to work with Kimberly Davenport because I believe she's got some serious insight into art and artists. There is a catalog in the works now.....

Andrew Zukoski, Rice University student, built a great stop motion/time lapse animation of the building of the styrobot at Rice Gallery. I am incredibly thankful for his hard work and thrilled with the results, which can be viewed, here http://vimeo.com/2196225

the Rice University newspaper reviewed the show here http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/

Several years ago I worked with this amazing young curator, Lauren Miller. She's now in Los Angeles and she has started a company with some colleagues that offers limited edition artists prints. The company, New Editions, is to launch any day. I have given them several drawings that will be part of their stock, and I am very excited about the venture. The prints are of the highest quality, each numbered and accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity. The other artists include; Farrah Karapetian, Rebecca Katz, Karen Kimmel, and Brian Wills. The concept behind the company is to encourage art collecting at the youngest age. After working in Europe I noticed the idea of collectorship to be much more prevalent and common than here in the states. I was so impressed by this phenomenon. I love the idea of New Editions and beginning the idea of art collection as a life long interest, and hopefully for some a passion. I can't make the opening party, but if anybody reads this and is interested, please know I am always available in any capacity to comment or elaborate further on my work.

I have a kid and I buy art for her all the time.

their sparkling new website is http://neweditionsart.com

...which is not why we collaborated the first time, we hardly knew each other yet we sensed a mutual understanding about many, many ideas. We first collaborated on a faculty show. There was no curation, no conceptual foundation, and neither of us really were excited about the prospect of just another group show. The results were a viral image sticker campaign that appeared throughout the museum, including in elevators and on trash cans. We also did some animations together, and we were both pretty excited about the results. Since that time Chris and I became good friends, we've been abroad together, co-taught courses and installed more than a couple students' work together. This past winter as I headed into my installation at Jeff Bailey Gallery I knew Chris would be the man to bang heads with on some new animations. I showed one of the animations in the show but I am proud of all 3. We swapped a lot of electro-mail and were on the phone plenty, but between the motivation, interest and kinship, a true collaboration happened. The animations can know be seen at http://digitalcoleman.com/video8.html This kid is smart, skilled, and talented check out all his stuff.

Gearing up for the Rice University show, titled too much. The installation opens Nov 6th. An enormous thank you the Houstonians helping out with the styrofoam I'll need for the show.

Art In America has printed the review of the show Are You Sure I did at Jeff Bailey Gallery. Its on the shelves now, the October issue.

Rebecca Childers and Haptic Eye Editions has nearly completed the printing of the Deluxe Edition, 100 Icons, and the Light Edition, 10 Icons. I am busy fine tuning the end of the project and expect it to release this fall.

Think.21 Gallery and I are getting geared up for my spring show in Brussels, and I am incredibly excited to see this work become reality. Marin Markov Studio will be handling the fabrication of a 14ft styrobot in cast aluminum.

No word yet on whether Pulse will host a big styrobot, but it has been proposed and I have started the piece.

• My letter-press collaboration with Rebecca Childers is looking great, she is amazing. This project is a Deluxe Edition (25 total editions) of 100 select icons from my collection of nearly 300 pictograms, logos, symbols and icons. I expect to release the finished project to my select galleries this fall.

• I have been to Bulgaria to meet with Think.21 Gallery and Marin Markov Studio to discuss the logistics for an aluminum casting of a giant styrobot. Complicated, time consuming and expensive, and very close to being a reality.

• Rice University Art Gallery will host my solo installation this fall, opening November 6th. Kimberly Davenport is a fantastic curator and I am delighted to work with her and her space in Houston.

• There's a dad and his kid out there who have posted there very own Styrobot, and I am delighted my work has motivated some people in this way.

• Think.21 Gallery has agreed to do a solo show of my work in March of 2009, it will be all brand new work.

• If there really is a review of my show at Jeff Bailey Gallery from last January in Art in America, it hasn't been published yet. I hope it does, eventually.

• There is a proposal out to the Pulse Art Fair, in collaboration with Think.21 Gallery, to produce and install a giant Styrobot at the fair this winter.....still waiting a response though.

http://www.dailyserving.com/2008/04/mich my interview at Daily Serving

Last week, with the generous and professional help of the San Jose Museum of Art installation staff, I installed a 7meter tall Giant Styrobot. It was a little wiggly going up, but once it was fully assembled it stood fierce and ready. The show is a thorough survey of the robot as icon and I am thrilled to be considered a part of that contemporary conversation. Much of the work is representative of the artists' obsession with popular culture. The Senior Curator JoAnne Northrup has assembled an enormous show filled with contemporary work by some of my favorite people; MARS-1, Nam June Paik, Jeff Soto, Gail Wight, Chris Cunningham, Feric, Lisa Solomon, and many, many more.

see the link here

It appears as though Art in America will review my recent solo show at Jeff Bailey Gallery. The reviews usually print 2-6 months after the show.

my self published book Visual is now available for purchase from lulu.com.

The dear friend and art-genius, Paul Evans, is curating a works on paper show at an ice cream shop in Los Angeles. The shop is called Scoops and is located at
712 N. Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90029
for complete details check out http://www.scoopsart.blogspot.com

I recently published my own book. Visual is a collection of installation images, drawings and random photos that help define what I do and what motivates my work. I am only making editions available at installation sites for now, but it will be available online soon.

Curator JoAnne Northrup from the San Jose Museum of Art is putting together an exhibition about robots, robotics, and other robot things. I have previewed the museum space and we're in the final stages of committing to a 22ft Styrobot for the show. Most likely to open in April 2008, the robot show will have a range of artists and media addressing the idea, icon and phenomenon of robots.

Jan 10th 2008 at Jeff Bailey Gallery, I will open an installation titled, Are You Sure. The installation is a result of extracting the banal, exploiting the media languages that surrounds us, and regurgitating the obvious, into an environment of animation, sculpture, kinetic sculpture, and drawing. This is my first solo exhibition with Jeff Bailey and my first in New York.

www.baileygallery.com