Michael McLaughlin was born and raised in Everett, Ma. Beginning in 1975, he studied for a year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and his most significant mentor and teacher was Barnett (Barney) Rubenstein. He spent the next year at the Massachusetts College of Art then finished his studies at Salem State University and where he received his BFA. He worked for several years in the commercial art field and his main clients were the marketing departments for NYNEX, New England Telephone and Western Electric. Corporate changes led to the loss of those clients, so he opted for a career in retail, holding management positions for major retailers in various locations. During his retail career, he continued to paint. He has shown at the Van Ward Gallery in Algonquin, Maine and in April 2018 he submitted work and was subsequently chosen to participate in the International Juried Show at the Beacon Gallery in Boston, where he received Honorable Mention. In October 2018 he was part of a two person show at Salem State University entitled “A Sense of Place”.
Artist Statement:
The Photorealists of the 70’s and 80’s produced wonderful picture surfaces, executed with exceptional verisimilitude that astonished the viewer (as intended most of the time) and in conjunction with the chosen subject matter, generated a visceral level of familiarity and recognition.
Hopefully with my work I can utilize some of the imagery and subject matter that they exploited and at the same time explore further the nature of the two dimensional picture plane. What interests me are the variety of marks and applications on the surface, whether they are meant to fool the eye or present a tactile abstraction of reality or simply exist on the picture plane itself. They are the drivers of the work. Sometimes they can stand alone, a swipe of random color in a corner for example, or sometimes the marks are interdependent as with the group that eventually yield the image of a car bumper.
The urban landscape being chosen as the main subject matter of the work is based on my own familiarity.
His personal website is https://www.mmurbanart.com/