About

Michael Wagner is an emerging American photorealist painter. His artwork has been represented in many prominent shows throughout New York and Connecticut, and featured in a number of distinguished publications.

Michael was born in 1958 in Pennsylvania. He began his art education at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he studied fine arts, art history, and graphic design. He then worked as a graphic artist for General Electric and went on to freelance for 10 years with Champion International. From there, he became a video producer, and traveled all over the United States, writing and producing video content. In 1997, frustrated with corporate politics and creatively fatigued, Michael joined the Stamford Police Department, and soon worked as a forensic sketch artist. His work contributed to a number of high-profile arrests state-wide. In 2014, Michael was invited to study art under the tutelage of the renowned German artist Sebastian Kruger. Inspired by artists such as Jota Leal, Bruce Mackinnon, Marvin Lorenz, James Martin and C Fox Payne, Michael’s work places him in an interesting contemporary mix of caricature, pop art, and photorealism. 

Growing up in the midst of the 60’s cultural revolution, Michael was privy to a rich backdrop of creative material. The big personalities of the decade, along with the its new ideas about expression in music and art, were the spark of his lifelong passion for people, and the complexities of individualism. His early work thus became focused on the idea of celebrity and exhibitionism, painting rock stars such as the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, and Keith Richards. Every painting is a conversation about people—the contoured lines of an eyebrow, the texture of age and the scars of experience, Michael relives the lives of those he paints. For Micheal, in every stage of his career, depicting the likenesses of those he admires (and even disgusts) provides an opportunity to explore the idiosyncrasies of personality in portraiture and figuration. 

In 2015, Michael had his first solo show at the Love Art Gallery in East Norwalk, Connecticut. HIs paintings, drawings, and prints have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is currently being represented in The Painting Center, in Chelsea New York City. Michael currently lives and works in Stamford, Connecticut. He serves as a Board of Director for the Loft Artists Studio.