David Michalek is an artist who takes the concept and techniques of portraiture as the starting points for the creation of his works, on both a large and small-scale, in a range of mediums. While studying English Literature at UCLA, David worked as an assistant to noted photographer Herb Ritts. Beginning in the mid-1990s, he began his professional photographic career, working regularly as a portrait artist for publications such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. In the late 1990's he redirected his focus on developing projects that merge photo and video based work with performance practice, installation, text and music. His solo and collaborative work has been shown nationally and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions or performances at The Brooklyn Museum, The Kitchen, Yale University, Dartmouth University, Lincoln Center Festival, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Toronto's Luminato Festival, and the Venice Biennale. He has collaborated with director Peter Sellars on two staged works: Kafka Fragments, presented as part of Carnegie Hall's 2005-06 season; and St. Fran¨ois d'Assise, presented at the Salzburg Festival and Paris Opera. He is a visiting faculty member at Yale Divinity School, where he lectures on religion and the arts. David Michalek lives in New York with his wife Wendy Whelan, principal dancer of New York City Ballet.
Goldenly (2008)
Goldenly is a video art installation using kaleidoscope of images that capture the precision and artistry of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Slow Dancing (2007)
Slow Dancing is a series of 43 larger-than-life, hyper-slow-motion video portraits of dancers and choreographers from around the world, displayed on multiple screens.
The Joban Fugue (2007)
The Joban Fugue, a multi-disciplinary performance, exists as a fusion of silent film and modern sacred music based on the book of Job.
Kafka Fragments (2005)
Photographic sequences for an hour-long setting of aphoristic lines drawn from the writer's letters and diaries. Composed for solo soprano and violin by the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag.
14 Stations (2004)
This project is modeled on the traditional devotional, The Stations of the Cross. Members of the group enacted each Station, with a different man or woman assuming the role of the Christ figure in each.
Becky (2002)
A multimedia (sculpture, photography, video and sound) installation of the detailed reconstruction of Becky Silverstein's apartment and her writings.
Salon K. (2000)
The work is an attempt to seriously document the men and women of the S&M sex trade while striking a delicate balance between pornography and documentation.
Still Photography
Sample galleries of David Michalek's still photographs.
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