Michael Pfleghaar
Profile
Since his childhood, Michael Pfleghaar has had a deeply personal and inspired relationship with the arts. Born in 1965 in Toledo, Ohio, Pfleghaar would find himself participating in his first art class as a child in the Toledo Artist’s Club. He participated in art classes through high school in Petoskey, Michigan where he spent his youth. His love of art would eventually lead him to Kendall College of Art and Design and Grand Valley State University where he received his BFA in painting.
In the summer of 1988, Pfleghaar attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Aix en Provence, France where he focused his studies on the French landscape. Soon after, Michael Pfleghaar apprenticed with the internationally recognized Michigan artist Stephen Duren.
Today, Michael Pfleghaar makes his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is best known for his colorful oil pastel drawings and oil paintings. His style is expressive and exaggerated, dealing with subjects ranging from still life, interiors, and landscapes to figurative images. His interpretations of interior spaces, furniture, and objects often portray very human characteristics in their movement, shape, and postures. Pfleghaar is extremely conscious of how objects relate, choosing to create “visual conversations” through the way he positions them in the same composition. Each subject becomes an allegory for personal experience and relationships.
In addition to painting, Pfleghaar works in terra cotta clay, forming each piece with the same personality and use of color, curves, and exaggeration as in his two dimensional artwork. Focusing on vases, and organic sculptures, his pieces are all influenced by the human form. Each one seemingly re-interprets the human body.
During his career, Michael Pfleghaar has received numerous honors for his work, both nationally and internationally. In 2007 he was awarded Best of Show in the Michigan Clay Competition “Fire and Mud” and was also featured in American Craft Magazine.
In addition to his artwork being featured in Metropolitan Home Magazine, Pfleghaar’s pieces are in the permanent art collections of Steelcase Inc., Neiman Marcus, Herman Miller, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Orlando Magic Sports Complex, and the State of Michigan Governor’s Residence. More recently, Pfleghaar was part of an exclusive online International auction for young artists held by Artlinkinc.com and Sothebys.com.
http://www.pfleghaar.com
http://www.pfleghaar.com/sketchblog
http://www.tanglefootstudio.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfleghaar/
