Special Feature

A special thanks to Geoff of The Post for featuring the following article about Santiago!

Lily Pads and Love Bugs: Santiago Michalek’s winning strategy strikes a familiar chord

Here are about half my thoughts about an artist whose work was on exhibit at the Meyer Gallery in Park City in August.

Surely one of the most widely recognized and well loved artists today is Claude Monet, whose long career carried him from the invention of Impressionism, through that landmark movement’s brief decade dominating the art market, past Cubism and the first World War, and ended just as that other perennial favorite, Surrealism, appeared on the scene. Specialists can identify Monet’s early, atmospheric experiments, but surely everyone knows the gardens and lily ponds that constitute the majority of his works. And thanks to his enduring popularity, many know that those subjects were not ones he found in the parks or suburbs of Paris. Monet was one of the handful of artists whose early success enabled him to buy land and to build the ideal landscapes he wanted to paint. His lily pond, its familiar bridge, and the gardens surrounding them could always be enjoyed in themselves, but first they were meant to be painted. Santiago Michalek’s life and work interweave in a similar pattern, but in his case the connection came about less directly. There must be plenty of car buffs whose dream job would be to spend their days restoring old cars if only they could make a living at it, just as there is no end to the would-be artists who can’t find a way to make it support them. Yet after a decade of alternating serious painting with tracking down and restoring his favorite old cars, Michalek’s two dream jobs have merged in a way that appears as practical as Monet’s selling admission to the gardens he made popular in his paintings.

Like the novelist Cesar Aira, Santiago Michalek was born just outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. He started drawing as a child, no doubt building crucial foundation skills that he would sublimate for more than twenty years. Perhaps like most boys he drew cars, though it seems unlikely he would have chosen to draw the relatively unromantic, cheap-but-sturdy Volkswagens that, as universal as they seemed immortal, could be seen everywhere in every conceivable condition. Young, would-be artists everywhere are told to find some more practical line of work, and maybe it didn’t seem so unrealistic a dream to a South American boy . . . not just to become a driver or a mechanic, but to make a living restoring the older VWs that, with the passing years, seemed less unromantic. Michalek was well aware that the image of what had become his favorite car was changing. “A few years ago, it’s true,” he says when asked about the crumbling examples abandoned in fields to rust into oblivion. But now, he explains, those same wrecks can be restored and sold to well-heeled baby-boomers who still want to own and drive the cars they pined for decades ago.

Michalek set up a business where his manual skills and high standards pay off; the cars he rebuilds aren’t just junk that can be driven, but are as close to showroom condition as possible. But his successful VW restoration shop on the Wasatch Front doesn’t exhaust all his energy or his ambition, and so a few years ago he began to formally study the skills he learned from his grandfather long ago. Although he retains a strong interest in the human physiognomy, both portraits and figures, it’s clear that much of his painting time is spent sketching the cars he works on. Sometimes he paints them as found, in barns or cluttered garages, sagging and listing in fields or junkyards, or parked and collecting dust under trees. A few can be seen in medias res, partly dismantled under the care of a fellow mechanic. Sometimes a car seen as found appears in another image fully reborn, a shiny source of pride. Throughout, it quickly becomes apparent that the artist knows his subject the way a scientific illustrator knows the parts of a plant or animal. As meticulously as he captures the mood and yes, romance, of old forms of transportation, Michalek paints his subjects so precisely his images could be used to illustrate manuals on their care and reconstruction.

At this relatively early stage in his career as a painter, the influence of San Francisco’s Bridge Academy, where he studied with Sean Diediker and Justin Taylor, is evident. There is a competent, illustrator quality to his painting that might be thought unusual in someone who began to exhibit only recently. But of course he’s been drawing, and painting, and working with his hands all his life. The range of conditions and circumstances in which old cars are found find their echo in the moods of his brush. The range of auto body paint, from shiny to rusted through, the worn out interiors, and the countless textures of sheds, open fields, garages, and wherever cars go to die (and live again), are only part of the story. It’s fascinating to go to his web site and see the same cars in both rough, small scale sketches and larger, formal presentations. Few artists of his caliber, even photographers or writers, can present a slice of life so vividly and with this authority, because few artists of his caliber have a life beyond art. Those who do often triumph as documentarians, but fail as story tellers. Santiago Michalek is a willing memoirist, someone whose paintings tell stories we can discern, intuit, and enjoy. And unless and until he and his peers get every old or abandoned Volkswagen back on the road, his stories and their limitless variety will only proliferate.

Deseret News Announces Spring Salon Winners

This article featured in the Deseret News highlights some of the history of the Spring Salon at the Springville Art Museum and also lists Santiago as a Merit Award winner.

A Salon to see: Annual art show in Springville draws more than 1,000 entrants

visit Deseret News to view the complete article
by Carma Wadley

Now in its 87th year, the Spring Salon is also a sign that Utah is continuing to grow a rich and vibrant art community. "Best show ever," says museum director Vern Swanson, as he should. The show is supposed to get better every year, as local artists continue to hone their skills and raise the bar of excellence.

What makes this year's show so exciting is not only the number of works in the show — 253 — but also, the variety of style: landscape, abstract, portraiture, fantasy and more; and the variety of media: oil, wood, acrylic, steel, graphite, mixed media, photography, bronze, crayon, pastel, assemblage, watercolor, ceramic, silver gelatin, and so on. "This year's show is absolutely phenomenal in terms of variety and scale," says Ashlee Whitaker, associate curator for the show. "There really is something for everyone."

Although there are about the same number of works as in past years, the exhibition fills all the galleries on the main floor and spills over into a couple of galleries on the upper floor, she says, mainly because "the physical size of many of the pieces is much larger." But her excitement about the show is not just about size. "The quality is simply outstanding," says Whitaker. "We really feel like it is a visual representation of the Utah art scene, how it is expanding, how it is producing quality works in all media and styles."

That has been the goal of the Spring Salon from the very first. The first salon was initiated by Virgil O. Hafen, the son of artist and museum-founder John Hafen, who had returned from studying art in Paris in 1920. While in France, he had been introduced to the salon idea and went to Springville High School with the idea of hosting a similar event.

In February 1921, the school put together an experimental show, which was so well-received, the first official Salon was launched the next year. That first exhibition featured only Utah artists. But in 1923, it was expanded to include out-of-state artists, as well. The purchase prize was increased to $500, and invitations were sent to leading artists throughout the country.

The Spring Salon proved popular with viewers. By 1927, more than 40,000 people came to view the show, and by 1937, some 60,000 attended the Salon — especially impressive when you consider the population of Springville in 1940 was only 4,777. It has been held every year since, except for three years during World War II, when shipping restrictions and gasoline rationing made it impractical. The show has come full-circle, says Whitaker. "Now we again restrict it to Utah artists, or those with Utah ties, and even with that we more than have our hands full."

This year 1,008 works were entered into the show; finalists were selected by jurors Adam Price, director of the Salt Lake Art Center, and Philipp Malzl, a professor of art history at BYU. The Salon is still considered Utah's premier fine art exhibition and is always a highlight at the museum, Whitaker says.

What is so fun, she says, is that "every year you see a lot familiar names, many of whom are among Utah's most-honored artists."

87th Annual Spring Salon Awards

• Jurors' First-Place Award: Jeffrey Robert Pugh, "Skyscrapers & Cowpies."
• Jurors' Second-Place Awards: Shea Guevara, "Back Alley;" David W. Meikle, "The Grand Canyon."
• Jurors' Third-Place Awards: Sandy Freckleton Gagon, "She Remembered She Could Fly;" Travis Richard Tanner, "New York Stock Exchange;" Sunny B. Taylor, "Horizon."

Merit Awards: Bruce B. Allen, "Cereal Food Processors;" Mark Bangerter, "Men With Crabs;" Nathan L. Barnes, "Emergent World;" Erin Westenskow Berrett, "Gatekeeper;" John P. Berry, "Rabbit Brush;" Darci Bertelsen, "Alex;" Ryan S. Brown, "A Painter's Inspiration;" Fidalis David Buehler, "Goodman's View: Danger Sliding Rock;" Brian Angus Buroker, "Garden Fantasy;" Heather Campbell, "Lost Treasure;" Larry W. Christensen, "Entering Gethsamane;" M. Morgan Coleman, "Evening Pasture;" Suzanne M. Conine, "Red River;" Mark Douglas Crenshaw, "Sheep;" Blue Critchfield, "Maximizing Happiness;" David Dornan, "Abstract-o-matic;" Deon Duncan, "Portentous;" John O. Erickson, "Summer's Child;" Peter M. Fillerup, "Hard and Fast All the Way;" Edward J. Fraughton, "Monarch of the Plains;" Sharon R. Gray, "Puns, Portraits and Parodies II," Carolyn Guild, "Spirit of Water — No. 1;" John Lytle Helton, "Symphony of Flight;" Mary Beth Hogue, "Maple Symphony;" Craig Neil Hone, "Night Shift;" Mark Missman and Jason Bullard, "He Grew in Wisdom and Stature;" Gerald Theodore Johnson, "Shrouded City;" Brian Thomas Kershisnik, "We Were Artists in Danger;" Steven B. Kropp, "Desert Solitude;" Santiago H. Michalek, "Murphy's Wholesale, Something, Something, Something;" Travis B. Miller, "Spiral Trout;" Anne Morgan-Jespersen, "In the Zone — Mr. Superharp: Colton James;" Matthew Carl Nelson, "The Secret World of Onions;" Carl Randsom Owens, "Passing the Time;" David Roy Pendell, "#1, Going Back Series;" Denis Phillips, "Untitled #17;" Ian M. Ramsay, "Columbia Dock;" Anton J. Rasmussem, "Temple Mountain;" Bruce Dean Robertson, "Camden;" Steven K. Sheffield, "Half Moon Rising;" Sophie Soprano, "24th of July Parade, Spring City;" Anders Sorensen, "Forgotten Windmill;" Shirley Tegan, "Grounded;" Leslie Thomas, "Big Lump;" Dahrl Thomson, "Double Eagle;" Terrel J. Van Leeuwen, "3 Cars;" Adrian Van Suchtelen, "Vanitas: Snowbird Tiger Moth;" Adrian Thomas Waggoner, "Once Upon Ohio;" Anne C. Weber, "Rocky Hillside;" Michael Workman, "Watsatch Front."

Deseret News Announced Winners

It might be old news but, I came across this article in the Deseret News announcing Santiago as one of the Merit Award recipients.  You can see his name on the bottom left.



In The Newsletter

If you havent had a chance to sign up for The Meyer Gallery newsletter yet, here are a couple of reasons why you might want to add yourself to their mailing list.

Santiago is one of The Meyer Gallery artists and it has been a priviledge to work with such a reputable gallery that has been in business for over 45 years! You can see the his pieces that are currently for sale and the ones that he has already sold on their web-site.

Feature In POW Magazine

Santiago, along with a few other local artist, were recently featured in the Provo Orem Word Magazine.  POW Magazine did an issue about the artistic portrayal of the body and one of Santiago's figure drawings got a 2 page spread!

This is the quote they included from Santiago. "Vanessa Motion Study" is the study of movement within a single figure in a two-dimensional image.  This began with the model in a fixed pose.  Every 10 minutes the model would shift slightly, this would continue for about 60 minutes.  The end goal was to have an image that felt like motion without losing integrity of the figure.

It was an honor for him to be recognized by this local magazine! Their publisher/editor Rebecca Packard was gracious to include a thank you note in the publication - "Many thanks to the Bridge Academy artists whose included works illustrate the body's inspiration so well"

Cover Spot On The Deseret News

In case you missed it - I was recently on the cover of the local Deseret Newspaper! Well actually a small picture of me was imposed into the header, but that still counts as a cover spot right? And under the arts & entertainment section they featured a full page article about The Bridge Academy with this picture of me.

Click here to read the full article but here's just a small taste with a quote from me that they included.

For student Santiago Michalek, "it's all about exact representation. You have to measure 800 million times in your head. But it's all about accuracy. You need that when you do portraits, for example."