About Michele Utley Voigt

“When you define a space literally in a painting, you miss the energy and the physics of it,” explains Michele Voigt, contemplating the juxtaposition between the classical anatomy of her figure drawing and the fractured-plane geometry of her abstract backgrounds. Like the actions performed by her figures, the settings are allegorical. The space they define is emotional and psychological -- energetic -- rather than architectural. Favoring the colors of earth and minerals, they are chilled but natural, built of shadow, space, and light. “Dad was an engineer -- I like to say I draft rather than draw.” Though mostly nudes, these images are not sexualized -- they are not even really personalized, as Voigt uses white masks or other means to stop them being read as too individual. These choices, similar to the choice of maintaining her spaces as abstract fields, focus on the universality of the given narrative without the distraction of biographical curiosity. Especially since her subject matter is often fraught with profound, deeply felt, personal symbolism. Each compositional element is arrayed so the figure can express itself directly, not unlike in the continuum of modern dance, where the body is a storyteller, speaking a language of awkward, angular, muscular, unconventional movement. “There’s beauty in everything -- even struggle and tragedy,” says Voigt. Even in her own. Sinu Ina (Into the Light) shows three figures seated one behind the other, cloaked in gradations of shadow that fade into a bright light. In reality, it is but one figure, depicted in three stages of enlightenment; dark-to-light represents the process of becoming educated. O Thus She Stood similarly depicts five figures rising from a crouch to stand up tall -- but is actually a single figure in the stages of being knocked to the ground and gathering herself to stand back up. Fait Accompli shows two figures and a baby in the middle, and once again the story is all written in their body language -- it is actually three women -- a birth mother, an adoptive parent, and a baby girl. Voigt is adopted, but this painting is about the pain and resolve of every woman who makes sacrifices in the name of a better life for themselves and their families. Other works follow this multifaceted compositional approach, even when a single figure is depicted alone and whole. For example a recent work dealing with the ravages of dementia features a divided plane and a single figure whose two heads pictorially express a state of inner division and turmoil. Saliently, it is a rare male figure in that picture -- because men signify power in art the same way women signify beauty, a portrait about the spin of losing power and control needed to be enacted by a male figure to shieve the narrative balance and impact she regularly accomplishes by pairing the feminine with hardship and victory. “I see the world through my eyes, of course,” says Voigt. “But I want relatable emotions, approachability -- and to share specific stories without leveraging them or forcing them on people. The viewers have permission to read into the work all they like, to place themselves in it as much as they can. Yes of course there is a story, but I’m after something more universal than that. I want people to use my work to find their own stories.” --Shana Nys Dambrot, Writer / Curator, Los Angeles "I paint stories of the human experience. The soul of life demonstrated in depictions of figures interacting within a realm of time, a realm of realities, and with one another. I express the plane of existence pictorially divided, fragmented, as the energy and emotion around each being and happening. Often this movement is abstract and often it is literal. I create images from inside myself. I carry them and grow them within me until I create. Most of my paintings are of women and their realities as they relate to the greater human experience. I have worked in oils since my early life and prefer my expressions to be shared in their luminance applied using master techniques."

Recent Awards, Publications and Exhibitions:
ArtSlant Prize Winner Round 4; 2015 Procession of 172 Souls
ArtSlant Prize Winner Round 3; 2015 2pi r/t
ArtSlant Prize Winner Round 1; 2015 Margins 0.50
National Association of Women Artists, New York, NY Jurored Exhibition, Voices: An Artist's Perspective; April 2015 O Thus She Stood
Celebrating Diversity Art Gallery, Group Exhibition, Skies; March 2015 Azadi
Linus Galleries, Group Exhibition, Lines & Curves; March 2015 premiere en rouge
Artist Portfolio Magazine Cover Competition, Finalist, Second Runner Up, Featured Spread; January 2015 Fait Accompli
World Citizen Artist Competition, Finalist, Belgravia Gallery, London; 2014 O Thus She Stood
Art Takes Miami Art Basel, SCOPE Art Miami; 2014 O Thus She Stood
Linus Galleries, Southern California, Group Exhibition, The Big C; 2014 2pi r/t
Linus Galleries, Southern California, Group Exhibition, The World Around You; 2104 O Thus She Stood and Fait Accompli
ArtSlant Prize Round 6 Showcase Winner; 2014 Fait Accompli
ArtSlant Prize Round 5 Showcase Winner; 2014 O Thus She Stood
City Lights Gallery in coordination with World Artists Network, Bridgeport, CT, Group Exhibition, Make Art Not War; 2012 Fait Accompli

Publications
Gutfreund, Karen (Editor and Curator), Voices: An Artists Prespective, UniteWomen.org, PrintPapa 2015, p. 156

Studies:
The Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, CA (BFA)1991
Parsons School of Design, Paris, France 1988
California State University, Los Angeles (BA) Pre Law/Political Science 1994
Glendale College, Women's History 1996

Featured Events:
RAW Artists Showcase, Jurored Invitation, Exchange LA, Los Angeles, CA, February 18, 2015
Galeria Zero, Jurored Invitation, New York City (Vertigo) Exhibition, Berlin, Miami (Art Basel) 2015
Florence Biennale, Firenze, Italy; Jurored Invitation, October 17-24, 2015

Portfolio: