Looking at the work of Michael Hantman is like stepping into a supernatural world with its own internal logic, dimensions, and characters. Michael creates detailed worlds of fantastical proportions. He draws his fantasy worlds in neon blues, reds, greens, and oranges. Michael incorporates old and new symbols as motifs, and his works reference ideas from films, books, comics, and real life.
Michael’s works are filled with images of confusion, hope, depression, imagination, and exuberance. These images occupy a world pervaded with tigers, turtles, frogs, cats and figures.
“I always drew as a kid, and my school notebooks were filled with comic characters, faces, and doodles in the margins. I love to combine written story telling with images.
My artistic vision encompasses a wide range of media and is a reflection of our evolving culture. The figures in my works are often dealing with the predicaments of modern, depersonalized society – a society grappling with media saturation.”
Michael wants to fuel a new direction in fine art, reshaping the art world into one reflective of the 2020 culture:
“I want to open up the art world for many people who wouldn’t be able to access it otherwise – a generational shift. I I hope my works will be provocative, endlessly inspiring ideas.”
Michael is also interested in how images can make vivid the turmoil, strength, and resiliency of the human spirit. His ‘activism” works incorporate articles from vintage newspapers to help viewers grasp the past, see where the world is heading, and imagine alternate destinies.
Michael’s work has been published in Genre Magazine and Metro Weekly, and has been seen in many group and solo shows. Most recently, he was given the honor of being chosen as a finalist in the Inside Outside Upside Down juried invitational at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.
Exhibits 2017-2021
Baltimore County Arts Guild, Maryland (juried)/2018
How Do You Like Me Now Productions, 2019
Overlea Arts Festival , (juried)/2018
Rockville Arts Festival, (juried), 2019,
UNICORN Gallery, 2019
Myerberg Center, Maryland 2019
UMBC, 2019
Club at Ibis, Florida, 2019
More Than Java Café, 2019
The Chesapeake Ats Center, 2019
The Phillips Collection, ( juried), 2021
Publications
Genre: Urban Arts. 2020
Metro Weekly. 2021
Renee Phillips juried invitational, Inspirational Art in Mixed Media. 2022
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