about mike wolfram
I’m a native Cincinnati artist exploring the relationships between traditional crafts and technology. In 2022, after almost two decades as a commercial designer and animator, I stepped away to start my own studio practice and pursue fine art full-time. Due to a growing dissatisfaction with the nature of digital marketing and advertising, I decided to focus on more tangible experiences.
As a commercial artist I owned and operated an animation and design studio in downtown Cincinnati (Foster & Flux, 2012-2017). I’ve had the opportunity to work for international brands such as Nike, IBM, Visa, and Procter & Gamble. My work has been featured in television, the super bowl, international store fronts, art festivals and live events.
In the two years that I’ve been a full time studio artist I’ve worked mainly in wood and digital art. I tend to embrace the slow and meticulous nature of both animation and woodworking, with large pieces taking many months to complete. While most of my education and experience is based in graphic art, I had the opportunity to apprentice in a commercial woodworking shop while living in the Netherlands in 2017. This experience was the catalyst for me to start exploring the symbiosis between these two seemingly divergent crafts. The work I do now comes from an urge to try and imbue digital art with the same legacy as traditional woodworking, giving it a place to live in the physical world. At the same time, the woodwork also inherits the flexibility and experimental nature that only digital work can provide. This interplay between tradition and experimentation is what I’m most interested in as an artist.
artist statement
I create highly detailed geometric sculptures that are typically wall mounted and crafted using traditional woodworking techniques. The sculptures are then utilized as a canvas for projected animations using specialized computer software and a standard video projector. The animations are continuously changing over time, giving the illusion that the light is being generated from within the surface of the sculpture. I want the viewer to lose themselves in the complexity, discovering new arrangements the longer they participate.
As an artist I'm trying to understand what makes certain mediums more cherished than others. Why is woodwork or oil painting passed down as an heirloom and digital art treated as ephemeral? Traditional crafts seem to have a warmth and longevity that makes them precious and give us a sense of enduring connection with the material and the artist. In contrast, we have a tendency to view things made digitally as cold, synthetic, and momentary. My art is born from a desire to weave that digital world seamlessly into my own crafted objects, blurring the line between digital creator and craftsman.
At the foundation of my art is an exploration of form, color and time. I draw inspiration from architecture, Bauhaus, aerial landscapes, and other complex geometry. I seek out pleasing shapes that I can distill down into simpler compound groups. My work is often maximalist in nature using dense compositions that change constantly and function as a whole rather than having a single focal point. The work is intended to envelop the viewer and reward their attention with a colorful respite from the outside world.
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