Making things is the only language that feels real to me. While imagery evolves, all follows the thread of an intuitive narrative. My work brings order to the chaos In which I find myself. The history of the whole world. Intuition and memory.
I was born in Albany, New York. At the young age of 17, I experienced an epiphany. It was a decade before I understood the meaning of that word and my awakening. I had an overwhelming desire to paint. Within days of this experience, I stumbled into the Albany Institute of History and Art. Shortly, thereafter, I began studying painting with Rudolph Helmo, an Austrian painter whose patron was the wife of the then New York State (NYS) Governor Nelson Rockefeller. I continued studying painting at the Institute, and months later with New York City (NYC) painter, Paul Russotto, who was in Albany while his wife Ellen taught Art History at the State University at Albany (SUNY Albany; aka SUNY UAlbany).
After studying with Paul Russotto in Albany, I left high school before graduating and moved to NYC to study at the Art Students League of New York. There, I studied painting with Robert Philipp and drawing with Robert Beverly Hale, both highly noted American artists then and today.
If the life of the starving artist builds character, I had character to spare. I struggled in NYC to keep alive while following my desire to learn painting and drawing. After a few months, without a dime left in my pocket, I returned to Albany thanks to my brother, Tom, who came to rescue me. I then continued with my education, earning a GED High School equivalency diploma and then earning a B.A. at Empire State College. I pursued higher education at SUNY Albany receiving an M.A. and M.F.A. in Fine Arts, Painting and Drawing. What attracted me mostly to college then was the opportunity to have studio space and free tuition and a stipend as a Teaching Assistant for painters, Mark Greenwold and William (Bill) Wilson.
Upon receiving my M.F.A., I immediately moved back to NYC to the Lower East Side and started doing what is all I ever wanted to do, paint and exhibit my work. I stayed in NYC until I was offered positions in Albany, N.Y., both as a Graduate Lecturer at the College of St. Rose and as a Drawing Instructor of Advanced Drawing at SUNY Albany. This move I have always regretted, as it made me realize I studied painting to paint, not to teach. I continued to paint but longed for the NYC art scene that fueled my artistic ambition. The teaching was temporary. I have never stopped painting and drawing.
While my work has the uniqueness of my own intuition, if I were to consider any serious influence, it would be that brief shining moment as a part of the East Village art scene in the 1980s and early 1990s, a small, localized NYC movement, but thoroughly international at the same time. In just a few short years, the East Village movement, much like the abstract movement of the 1940s and 1950s in NYC, proved to be the defining moment for quite a few artists from every point of the globe, many artists emerging as well-known and highly recognized today both nationally and internationally.
EXHIBITIONS
Albany Institute of History & Art, Mohawk-Hudson Regional, 2011 Exhibition, (Albany, NY), Curated by Holley Hughes
Albany Center Gallery, The Great Municipal Sideshow, (Albany, NY), 2006
Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), 02/05
Albany Center Galleries, The Masque Ball, (Albany, NY), 10/04
Spencertown Academy, Down the Rabbit Hole, (Spencertown, NY), 11/03
The Arts Center of the Capital Region, 40 x 40, (Troy, NY), 11/02
Albany Center Galleries, Solo, (Albany, NY), 3/02
Albany Center Galleries, Masking Time, (Albany, NY), 10/99
R.C.C.A., The Arts Center, Solo, (Troy, NY), 11/98
Albany Center Galleries, Heaven, (Albany, NY), 10/97
Fulton Street Gallery, Group Exhibition, (Troy, NY), 10/97
University Art Museum, artists in the kitchen, SUNY Albany, (NY), 6/96
University Art Museum, Alumni Invitational Exhibition, SUNY Albany, (NY), 6/95
Albany Center Galleries, Solo, (Albany, NY), 9/94
E.M. Donahue Gallery, Group Show (NYC), 6/93
College of St. Rose, Faculty Exhibition, (Albany, NY), 3/93
Ruth Siegel Gallery, (NYC), 1991
E.M. Donahue Gallery, Gallery Group Summer Show, (NYC), 6/91
E.M. Donahue Gallery, Works on Paper, (NYC), 12/89
E.M. Donahue Gallery, Solo, (NYC), 9/89
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, Landscape Anthology, (NYC), 9/88
E.M. Donahue Gallery, Solo, 560 Broadway, (NYC), 4/88
Dramatis Personae, Fusion Arts, (NYC), 1987
E.M. Donahue Gallery, Solo, (NYC), 1986
Ruth Siegel Gallery, Invitational, (NYC), 1986
Everson Museum of Art, Everson Biennial, (Syracuse, NY), 1986
Nolo Contendere Gallery, (NYC), 1986
E.M. Donahue Gallery, Invitational, (NYC), 1986
Hartwick College, Figurative Painting, (Oneonta, NY), 1986
Bridgewater Gallery, Invitational, (NYC), 1986
Nolo Contendere Gallery, (NYC), 1985
E.M. Donahue Gallery, (NYC), 1985
Sixth Sense Gallery, (NYC), 1985
Now Gallery, (NYC), 1985
Dramatis Personae, (NYC), 1985
Ruth Siegel Gallery, 24 x 24, (NYC), 1984
Getler/Pall/Saper Gallery, (NYC), 1984
International Art Exposition, Navy Pier, (Chicago, Ill.), 1984
Sharpe Gallery, Sex, (NYC), 12/83
Siegel Contemporary Art Gallery, Rambunctious, (NYC), 1983
Cash Gallery, Invitational, (NYC), 1983
Galerie Grothe, (Copenhagen, Denmark), 1983
SUNY Albany Gallery, Mohawk-Hudson Regional, (Albany, NY) 1982
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Nine Artists, (Utica, NY) 1982
El Paso Museum, (El Paso, TX.), 1982
Springfield Museum, (Springfield, Ma.), 1979, 1981
Elizabeth Weiner Gallery, (NYC), 1980
Court Gallery, (Copenhagen, Denmark), 1978
Berkshire Museum, (Pittsfield, Ma.), 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980
Schenectady Museum, Mohawk-Hudson Regional, (Schenectady, NY), 1980
Center Galleries, Solo, (Albany, NY), 1979
SUNY Albany Gallery, Mohawk-Hudson Regional, (Albany, NY) 1979
Raymond Duncan Gallery, (Paris, France), 1975
Institute of History and Art, (Albany, NY), 1976-79
Cooperstown Museum, (Cooperstown, NY), 1976, 1979
Ann Leonard Gallery, (Woodstock, NY), 1975-1979
Silvermine Art Guild, (New Canaan, Ct.), 1979
Russell Sage College, Three Artists, (Troy, NY), 1977
SELECT COLLECTIONS
Wynn Newhouse, Boston, Ma.
Museu Da Imagem El Do Som, Sao Paulo
Paco Das Artes, Sao Paulo
Patterson Museum, Patterson, NJ
SUNY Albany, Albany, NY
Ruth Siegel, NYC
Ellen Donahue, NYC
Michael Blaine, NYC
Eric Frye, Paris, France
F.D. Rich Co., Stamford, Ct.
EDUCATION
M.F.A. in Painting, SUNY Albany, NY, 5/83
M.A. in Painting, SUNY Albany, NY, 5/82
B.P.S., The Arts, Empire State College, Albany, NY, 5/80
Art Students League of New York, NYC, 1972
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Faculty Member, ITT Institute, Technical College, Albany, NY, 9/01-5/02
Drawing Instructor, SUNY Albany, NY, 1/93-6/93
Graduate Lecturer, College of St. Rose, Albany, NY, 9/92- 6/93
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Advanced Drawing, SUNY Albany, NY, 9/81-6/82
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Advanced Painting, SUNY Albany, NY, 9/82-6/83
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Michael Mooney
Nerve Cowboy
Number 28
Fall 2009, Austin. TX
Divine Dr. Magambo Takes Manhattan
Intervention
Published the Naropa Press, Bombay Gin 31
The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, 2005
Scent of Memory © 2000
Michael Mooney, All Rights Reserved
Mary Mark Press, East Windsor, NJ, 2005
Life Reflections, Visions Macabre and Fun, fill exhibit at Center Galleries
Albany Times Union, April 23, 2000
By William Jaeger
Mooney tells Surrealistic Stories in Center Galleries Exhibit
The Schenectady Daily Gazette, April 20, 2000
By Karen Bjornland
Michael Mooney, Best Shows of 2000
Metroland Magazine, December 2000
By Stacy Lauren
Artist Duo Fits Well in Fun, Witty Exhibit
Albany Times Union, December 13, 1998
By William Jaeger
Michael Mooney at E.M. Donahue Gallery,
560 Broadway, New York City
Art Forum International, December 1989
By James Lewis
Michael Mooney MFA Exhibition
Albany Times Union, June 1983
By Ken Johnson, Critic, Art in America, NY Times
Dante’s Inferno, Michael Mooney at E.M. Donahue Gallery
560 Broadway, New York City
By Time Creators Magazine, Vol. II, 1986-87
Tokyo, Japan