Artist Michael Villarreal

In 2013, Michael Villarreal received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX and a Master of Fine Arts in 2017 at the University of Nebraska. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions at Art Palace Contemporary Art Gallery, Houston, TX, and Project Project, Omaha, NE. He’s been in numerous group exhibitions which include Real Shapes at DATELINE in Denver, CO; Going My Way at Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX; Nebraska Rising at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, and Excessivist Initiative at LA Artcore: Brewery Annex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. His work has been featured in several publications such as Huffington Post, New American Paintings, and Art Maze Magazine. Recently, his work was on view in the group exhibition at The International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE. In 2019, he was a recipient of the Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Upcoming exhibitions include a group exhibition at the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney, NE.

My work explores self, place, and value through the different components that make up a household. When I was growing up, both my parents worked for a moving company from which they brought home discarded objects to the house my dad built with his own hands. This home was not designed to fit an explicit aesthetic, but all aspects of the house were in harmony and completed by the objects brought into each space. The house became a repository for abandoned domestic American culture — beds, couches, appliances, and other products made it into the home in irregular but frequent intervals. Using my past as an influence, I take the idea of necessity to make sculptures that resemble day to day household items. The forms of each item are off kilter and exaggerated lending themselves to a nostalgic feeling of childhood. Each piece works together to create a parody of what should be an accepted idea of an American domestic setting.