Michele Abeles Explained

Michele Abeles
Birth Place:	New York City
Nationality:	American
Awards:	Rema Hort Mann, Visual Arts Grantee 2010 Richard Benson Award, Excellence in Photography, Yale University, 2007
Field:	Photography
Training:	Washington University in St. Louis (BA) Yale University (MFA)

Michele Abeles is an American visual artist and photographer.

Life and work

Michele Abeles was born in 1977 in New York.^[1] She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and has an M.F.A. in photography from Yale University. Her photographs combine everyday objects such as bottles, pots, rocks, and scraps of paper with flashes of bright color and fragments of male bodies.^[2]

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

• Zebra, 47 Canal, New York (2016)
• Baby Carriage on Bike or Riot Shield as Carriage, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015)
• Find Out What Happens When People Start Getting Real, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2014)
• English for Secretaries, 47 Canal Street, New York (2013)
• Αγγλικά για Γραμματείς, Andreas Melas & Helena Papadopoulos, Athens (2013)
• Frame, Frieze, New York (2012)
• Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:, 47 Canal, New York (2011)^[2]

Selected group exhibitions

• DIDING – An Interior That Remains an Exterior?, Kunstlerhaus, Graz, Austria (2015)
• Second Chances, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, USA (2015)
• A World of its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014)
• Test Pattern, Whitney Museum of Art, New York (2013)
• Empire State, curated by Norman Rosenthal and Alex Gartenfeld, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy (2013)
• Speculations on Anonymous Materials, Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (2013)
• New Photography 2012, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012)
• Greater New York 2010, MOMA PS1, Long Island City (NY) (2010)

Further reading

• Annie Godfrey Larmon, Michele Abeles at 47 Canal, Artforum, Feb 2017.
• Martha Schwendener, Michele Abeles, The New York Times, Dec. 8, 2016.
• Michele Abeles, Isabelle Graw, Michele Abeles: ZEBRA (London / New York: Sadie Coles HQ / 47 Canal, 2016).
• Michele Abeles, Sara Cwynar, Jon Rafman and Travess Smalley, ‘Recoding Images: A Round-Table Interview Curated by Lauren Cornell’, Mousse, no. 43, Milan, March 2014, pp. 238–253.
• Sara Knelman, ‘Michele Abeles’, frieze, issue 167, London, November – December 2014, pp. 174–175.
• Sean Ashton, ‘Michele Abeles: Find Out What Happens When People Start Getting Real’ ArtReview, London, December 2014, p. 110.
• Roberta Smith, ‘Art in Review: Michele Abeles: English for Secretaries’, The New York Times, New York, 17 May 2013, p. C24.
• David Velasco, ‘Michele Abeles’, Artforum, New York, November 2011, pp. 258–261.

Notes and References

1. Web site: New photography, 2012: Michele Abeles. Museum of Modern Art. October 2012. March 10, 2018.
2. Web site: Michele Abeles. Saatchi Gallery. 2018. March 10, 2018.