Life & Work with Michael Pfleghaar

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Pfleghaar.

Hi Michael, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 1983 I moved to Grand Rapids, MI from Petoskey, MI to attend Kendall College of Art and Design, and received my BFA in Fine Arts in painting from Grand Valley State University in 1989. I received my MFA in visual arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design, in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2011. Modern and contemporary design, architecture, interiors, and houseplants inspire my colorist autobiographical, representational, and abstract mixed-media artwork.

Over the years my art practice has varied from dark figurative narratives in my undergraduate studies to personal interior spaces and still life. In graduate school, my work evolved to entirely non-objective while dealing with the same themes of relationships. I have since come back to realism drawing from life as an autobiographical tool while combining elements of abstraction.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As a working fine artist the rewards are great in personal satisfaction but not always financially rewarding. Sometimes I have to rely on interior painting jobs to make ends meet. Currently, I sell my work mostly online through numerous websites as well as directly to collectors in the West Michigan area.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My artistic style lies somewhere between abstraction and realism with colorist sensibility. My goal is to combine the two opposing artistic styles into a unique visual language characterized by flattened space and exaggerated color. Modern design is also an influence in my work as it seems to follow a similar visual aesthetic and material for the subject matter.

In 2022, I was voted Best Visual Artist by Grand Rapids Magazine’s Readers Poll. In 2021 was awarded The Best of Show in the 2021 Festival of the Arts and in the West Michigan Area Show and at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Kalamazoo 2020.

My artwork has been featured in Arcadia Magazine, Studio Visit, Metropolitan Home, Solace, and American Craft. Apple, HBO, CBS, ForeSee, Hayworth, and Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts are a few of the organizations that have utilized my artwork as illustrations.

In 2016, I attended the Spread Art Artists Residency in Detroit, MI, and in 2013 was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Ox-Bow School and Artists Residency in Saugatuck, MI. My original artworks are in permanent collections including the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Frederik Meijer Gardens, and Sculpture Park, Steelcase Inc., Herman Miller, the State of Michigan, and Grand Valley State University.

2022 has been a busy one in the studio with lots of commissioned paintings and working in clay to build a body of botanical-inspired ceramic objects.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Being equally as creative in your work as you are with the ways you do business. I feel artists today have so many ways to make a living through their work, but you have to be a good business person as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pfleghaar.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pfleghaar/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/m.pfleghaar/
• Other: https://pfleghaar.square.site/