Welcome to the studio site of artist and writer Michael Workman. This site is for active current & ongoing projects of the studio, which in addition to art and writing (including poetry, fiction, independent editorial and scholarly and choreographic texts, public/civic art projects, social practice, dance, performance and movement art, oil painting and graphic novels), includes film and video, book design and layout, grant research and writing, with the occasional independent curatorial project.
We’re still adding things here, but meanwhile check out archived work at the artist portfolio site. Most work on this site is grouped under the “Portfolio” option, and includes hundreds of stand-alone artworks sorted roughly by media, project or intellectual and artistic interests. No prices are currently listed.
All artworks in the portfolio are available for sale / commission unless otherwise marked. Send us a link to the image page with the artwork you are interested in purchasing, and we will respond with pricing and availability.
Please also note site documentation can run roughly two- to four years behind current studio production. For a tour of current studio production, please also contact us via email at the link.
YOU CAN ALSO CHECK OUT my Illinois Presenter network page, which has more recently updated information. The cover image is particularly cool for me -- it's documentation of the reprise of my instructional performance Intimate Conversation from 2018, presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in collaboration with artists Mike Anestor, Jenn "Po'Chop" Freeman, David Perales Albert, and my son Tristan Workman!
An artist resource network, the "Artstour Roster was created in collaboration between the Illinois Presenters Network and the Illinois Arts Council Agency. This directory lists Illinois performing artists, companies, and ensembles that tour the state. The 2021 Artstour artists were reviewed by a jury of professional presenters. The Artstour jurors evaluated the artists based on the artistic and technical quality of their work as demonstrated by materials submitted; their professionalism demonstrated through management, promotional materials, and references; the artist’s demonstrated ability to tour; and the quality of the documentation submitted."
Bridge
ONGOING / UPCOMING
Bridge is a Chicago-based artistic collective and registered Illinois 501 (c) 3 publishing and programming organization founded by Michael Workman. Publications include the weekly Bridge magazine, the periodical hard bound Bridge Journal and Bridge Bulletin. Bridge Books, the organization’s book-publishing wing, will launch in 2023.
Core members past and present include members of SITE/less and Facility Chicago, Zephyr Dance, Rappaport Studio, novelist Meghan Lamb, RedShift Couture, Floating Museum, members of the Terrain Biennial and others as project collaborations may require.
To learn more, please visit the Bridge site.
Biography of
a Villain
Ghost Army
Ghost Army is a street art project to prompt national mourning of the more than 600,000+ Americans needlessly lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a memorial to those lives lost and unmourned by others in general. As a project for the 2021 Terrain Biennial. I dedicated Ghost Army to the memory of my uncle Mark Workman, who died in the mid 1980’s, one of the earliest victims of the A.I.D.S. epidemic, who was shunned for his homosexuality by my family, and whose grave goes unrecognized and without a stone marker to this day.
Used in arrangement, the figures also double as dance notation, and can be used to choreograph dance movement.
You can read about the project in this interview with Workman at Sixty Inches From Center.
Biography of a Villain, Workman’s 700+ -page graphic novel eight years in the making, has entered final production phase. It currently earns the modern-day equivalent of an X-rating by the Comics Code Authority criteria for graphic sex and violence, and we’re not entirely sure we’ll be able to find a publisher to print it.
Please join the waitlist to purchase and for updates on the limited-run artist’s folio version by signing up here.
