Mike Sorgatz

Michael Sorgatz is a Brooklyn-based artist whose colorfully abstracted paintings are inspired by the energy of the urban environment. Currently living in NYC, he was born in Chicago and lived in California where he earned a BFA degree at the Art Institute of Southern California. He publishes the websites Art in Brooklyn and Art in New York City which profiles artists and related events in the NYC metro area.

My paintings are improvisations that combine vibrant color with an assortment of painting techniques and tools to create highly textured and dynamic surfaces. I like to be surprised by a painting and create a working environment where the unexpected can flourish. Using an open-ended approach to starting a new work, I begin with an initial concept that could be anything from a group of shapes, a palette, or a compositional idea. Building on that foundation, I start massing shapes and layers of color and respond to their interactions until the piece develops a character and direction of its own. The work is most interesting to me when it is unconstrained and has the freedom to go in any direction.