Duane Michals

Click image to see full size

Duane Michals (b. 1932, McKeesport, PA) is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text.

Michals first made significant, creative strides in the field of photography during the 1960s. In an era heavily influenced by photojournalism, Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives. The sequences, for which he is widely known, appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format. Michals has also incorporated text as a key component in his works. Rather than serving a didactic or explanatory function, his handwritten text adds another dimension to the images’ meaning and gives voice to Michals’ singular musings, which are poetic, tragic, and humorous, often all at once.

Michals received a BA from the University of Denver in 1953 and worked as a graphic designer until his involvement with photography deepened in the late 1950s.

​He currently lives and works in New York City.

Solo Exhibitions (Selection)

2020
“The Illusions of the Photographer,” The Morgan Library and Museum, NY

2019
“Duane Michals,” Antiguo Instituto Jovellanos, Gijón, Spain
“Duane Michals: The Portraitist,” The Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
“Duane Michals: Mischievous Eye,” DC Moore Gallery, New York NY

2018
“Duane Michals,” Centro José Guerrero, Grenada, Spain
“Duane Michals,” Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy
“Duane Michals: The Portraitist,” The Crocker Museum of Art, CA

2017
“Duane Michals,” Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Dusseldorf, Germany
“Duane Michals,” Fundación MAPFRE Casa Garriga i Nogués Exhibition Hall,
Barcelona, Spain
“Duane Michals: Anti-Trump Agitprop,” OSMOS Gallery, New York, New York

2016
“Duane Michals: Sequence & Talking Pictures,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
“Duane Michals: Photographs From the Floating World,” Bennington Museum, VT
“Duane Michals: Sequences, Tinytypes and Talking Pictures,” Carl Solway Gallery,
Cincinnati, Ohio
“Duane Michals: The Narrative Photograph” Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA

2015
“Duane Michals: The Portraitist,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
“Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals,” Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
“Duane Michals: 50,” Sala Municipal de Exposiciones de San Benito, Valladolid, Spain.



Group Exhibitions (Selection)

2020
“New Masculinities: Through Photography and Film from the 1960s to Now,” Barbican
Art Gallery, London, UK
Traveling to: Martin-Gropius, Berlin, Germany
“Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989,” The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL,

2019
“The Space Between,” Julie Saul Gallery, NY
“Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989,” Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY

2018
“Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989,” Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
“Hold still: the photographic performance,” Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
“Marcel Duchamp,” Paul Kasmin Gallery, NY
“The Last Image: Photography and Death,” The Berlin Foundation, Germany
“Scripted Reality: The Life and Art of Television,” Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico

2017
“Speech,” Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY
“Magic Mirror,” Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, NY
“Summer Mysterious,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
“Bodies in Water,” de Cordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA
“Andy Warhol: The Mechanical Art,” Caixa Forum, Barcelona, Spain
“When We Were Young,” Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY

2016
“Masterworks on Paper,” Portland Musuem of Art, ME
“Pyramids & Sphinxes,” Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
“Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Duane Michals: Camera Drama,” University of Kentucky Art Museum
“A Feast for the Eyes,” Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY
“VERSUS. La Sfida Dell'artista al suo Modello in un Secolo di Fotografia e Disegno,” Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena, Italy

2015
“Art AIDS America,” Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
“Who’s Who: Seeing Back to Front,” Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneaspolis,
MN,November 6, 2015 – March 20, 2016.