VISUAL CULTURE

Michael Petry was born in El Paso, Texas (1960) and has lived in London since 1981. He has a BA (Mathematical Science, and Fine Art) from Rice University, Houston, and an MA with Distinction, from London Guildhall University. Petry is an internationally exhibited multi-media artist and a Co-Founder of the Museum of Installation. He lectures part time at the Royal College of Art, and the Royal Academy, and was the Curator at Oslo’s Kunstakademi. He is the Curator at the Royal Academy Schools Gallery, Hornsey and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, London, and currently completing his PhD by practice at Middlesex University.

Petry’s books include the seminal Installation Art (Thames and Hudson, 1994), A Thing of Beauty is… (Academy Group, 1997), and Abstract Eroticism (Academy Group, 1996), The Trouble with Michael (Artmedia Press, 2000), and Installation Art in the New Millennium (Thames and Hudson, 2004) Petry received a Research Fellowship at the School of Art and Design, University of Wolverhampton to write Hidden Histories, the first comprehensive survey of male same sex lovers in the visual arts in the 20th Century, to accompany an exhibition he curated for The New Art Gallery Walsall (2004).

His body of work is based in site specific installations, that incorporate video, sound and a surprising number of additional elements from 72 tons of sand to finely blown lead crystal objects. His studio work is almost always based on his own body measurements whether using leather, pearls or paint. He is represented by the Sundaram Tagore Gallery (New York), the Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery (Houston), and RM Fine Art (London).

Petry has been included in many international exhibitions including Independence (South London Gallery, 2003), In the Gloaming (ArtOMI, Hudson New York, 2003, curated by Koan Jeff Baysa), Zero Carat, works from the Donna Schneier Collection (American Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2002), UTOPIA (Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Stavanger, Norway, 2000), the 7th Papier Biennale (Leopold Hoesch Museum, Duren, Germany, 1998, Petry’s installation won 2nd Prize), Partie 5 (Brandenburgische Kunsttage, Internationales Kunstforum Drewen, Germany, 1997), the 1993 Venice Biennale, and ORNAMENTA 1, Pforzheim, Germany, 1989).