www.newfoundartist.com

Instagram @michaeljonathonpittman
Twitter @mj_pittman
Signature

Contemporary visual art

About

www.newfoundartist.com

Michael Jonathon Pittman 

was born in Newfoundland and Labrador to parents of Indigenous and settler descent. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Memorial University, and a practice-led research Masters degree on the visual culture of Newfoundland and Labrador from the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland.


Pittman has participated in multiple residencies, including Fogo Island Arts’ Outport Interiors (2010) and his work has been extensively exhibited at home and abroad. In 2012, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery curated a significant solo exhibition of his artwork comprised of over 5 years of visual explorations. In 2013 he was a semi-finalist for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s pre-eminent award for contemporary Canadian art. The following year his work was included in a comprehensive exhibition of Newfoundland and Labrador artists at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (2014).


Pittman’s work was shown in Venice, Italy as part of the Benetton Foundation’s Great and North during the 2017 Venice Biennale, and in 2018 his work was included in Future Possible; an exhibition that juxtaposed historic art and views of Newfoundland and Labrador with contemporary perspectives and practices, resulting in a major publication, marking the first comprehensive art history of the province. In 2021, he was invited to participate in the Bonavista Biennale, where his work was featured alongside some of the most exciting names in contemporary art. Here he began his current body of work, which investigates the intersection of trauma and the environment through landscape painting.


Over the past decade, Michael Pittman has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards for his artwork, which frequently references the physical environment, traditional knowledge and hidden histories of the places to which he is connected. 

Gallery

www.newfoundartist.com

www.newfoundartist.com

Borderwall. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 40” x 40”

Darker lands. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 40” x 40”

Higher Ground. 2023. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

High Water. 2023. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x20”

Intruder. 2023. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x20”

Spire. 2023. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Estrangement. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Pump. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Egress (intruder). 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Ghost House. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Barricade. 2023. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Blight (campsite satellites). 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Island. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Reservoir (high water). 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 40” x 40”

Antibacterial White. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 40” x 40”

Evening Light. 2024.  Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 40” x 40”

Morning Shadow. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 40” x 40”

Blaze. 2024. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 40” x 40”

Drogue. 2020. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Blackberry. 2020. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Curse. 2020. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Fetch (southwest wind). 2020.  Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Island (empty boat with corpse). 2021. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 30” x 30”

Wake. 2021. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 20” x 20”

Sewels. 2020. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 48” x 48”

Kiars Cove. 2021. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 48” x 48”

Buoy (red right returning). 2020.  Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 48” x 48”

Lun. 2021. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 48” x 48”

Shroud (glass over wood). 2020. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 48” x 48”

Emergence and retreat. 2016. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on archival rag board. 16” x 16”

Within the veil. 2016. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on archival rag board. 12” x 12”

Dawn. 2016. Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on archival rag board. 16” x 16”

Control. 2016. Acrylic, India ink and graphite on birch plywood. 32” x 32”

Poole. 2016. Acrylic, India ink and graphite on birch plywood. 32” x 32”

Sleeper. 2016. Acrylic, India ink and graphite on birch plywood. 32” x 32”

Foot control. 2016. Acrylic and graphite on archival rag board. 10” x 14”

1937. 2016.  Acrylic, India ink and charcoal on birch plywood. 10” x 14”

My imagery is often informed by a relationship with the geography, history and regional vernacular culture(s) of Newfoundland and Labrador. 


Formally, the work sits at the periphery of established regional conventions, while also attempting to overturn some of the tropes that are ensconced in these visual traditions. 

Contemporary painting of houses with a bear in the foreground
Ink drawing of ghostly woman with chair

I embrace the ambiguous nature of things: the terrifying uncertainty of meaning. There is a disquieting strangeness that pervades the almost-familiar image; its unfixed meaning arouses an uncomfortable instability. In my work, I try to reflect and sometimes deconstruct the processes by which we perceive and process information through subtle, personal narratives.


I think that we see part of ourselves in everything we look at, for better or worse. Our experiences shape who we are, and at the same time, who we are has an undeniable impact on the way we experience a given situation. 


When I create images or things, I gather my experiences around a particular subject and transcribe them in a way that makes some kind of personal, intuitive sense. The results are representative of the particular way that I decode the world. Though the work is highly subjective, I believe it’s illuminated by the commonality in the way that we all process and internalize experience.



Cotemporary figuative painting
Painting of figure in boat at night
Contmeporary figuative painting
Contempporary figurative drawing
Contmeporary drawing of woman with chairs

Contact

www.newfoundartist.com

Please direct inquiries to info@newfoundartist.com or contact: 


Sivarulrasa Gallery

34 Mill Street

Almonte, ON

(613) 256-8033


Abbozzo Gallery

401 Richmond Street West, Suite 128

Toronto, ON

(416) 260-2220