Click Here for Timeline
 
                        M O D E R N  A M E R I CA N  A R T I S T

Michael Albert has been making art since his college days at NYU, where he studied business (BPA, 1988).

He became interested in art after visiting many of the great museums of New York and began his own serious artistic pursuits working with magic markers and later, wax oil sticks (fancy crayons).

After 7 years of drawing, he began an exploration of COLLAGE which rivals ANY in the history of ART. His first collages were inspired by the need to use materials he had no other practical use for including old labels & the leftover stickers he had accumulated from his business activities. Soon he began to use the extra photographs he had accumulated after putting together his family photo album at home to create ‘cubist-type’ collage portraits of family & friends.


Then came a breakthrough….one day, due to his reluctance to throw away a Frosted Flakes cereal box, Albert created his first ‘Modern Pop Artwork‘, a collage he titled, ‘Portrait of an American Classic’. This led to a series of these ‘Pop Cubist’ portraits of famous brands, including a collection of over 500 original Cereal box collages alone (he compares this to Picasso’s Blue Period). Albert describes the Cereal Box collages, which he calls ‘Cerealism’, as “a cross between Picasso’s Cubism and Warhol’s Pop”.

All of Albert’s original art is handmade by the artist without the use of computers. All materials were collected by the artist, a process which has evolved over the years, where he has been turning used consumer packaging (mostly cardboard) into his own original FINE ART.

Albert’s first BOOK was released April 29, 2008 and is entitled ‘An Artist’s America’. The 48-page picture book is published by Henry Holt & Company and will be available in hard and soft cover. This Art Book is a ‘Greatest Hits’ collection and RETROSPECTIVE of his work following his progress over the past (nearly) two decades and includes 28 primexamples of his art. It follows his evolution from the early wax oil drawings he began creating during his college years to the collages for which he has become known including his coveted ‘Cerealism’ portraits of cereal boxes and other famous, iconic brands. The book features his more recent ‘Epic Works’ where he spends months (and sometimes more than a year) to create large scale collage constructions representing famous text and various scenes throughout history. The book is a great tool for other artists who are interested in the art form of collage as well as a strong collection of the artist’s work to this point.

Albert continues to create new art regularly and
runs collage workshops
at schools & arts institutions. He can also be found staging his traveling Modern Pop Art Show at a variety of venues including: stores that sell the Sir Real juices, on the streets of  NYC where he gives away prints and shares his story with random passers-by, or how he describes them, "perfect strangers", and lately, since the release of his book in 2008, his venue of choice has been LIBRARIES which he has so far visited over a hundred!  He has been developing what he calls the "Modern Pop Art Experience", a program where he talks about his art, shows numerous examples of it and then runs hands-on "Cereal Box Collage" workshops with students of all ages. The program has been taken to not only libraries, but also Schools & Museums all over the New York Metropolitan area out east to the tip of Long Island, up into New England as far north as New Hampshire & Vermont, as far west as Chicago & St. Louis, MO and down south as far as Georgia with many more 'Tour dates' upcoming. See the Homepage for his Tour Schedule!!  And.......

STAY TUNED FOR FURTHER DETAILS.......