Mychaelyn Michalec is a textile artist and painter working in Dayton, OH. Her work addresses themes of sexuality, art history, gendered labor and feminism by hand and mechanically crafting large-scale textured wool rugs. She creates large scale rugs using both hand tools and a commercial tufting gun which are often embellished with embroidery, hand knitting and found vintage sewing notions. Textiles are historically a language of creation and storytelling assigned to women at birth and Michalec uses these processes as part of a historical continuum of our cultural heritage. While Michalec recognizes that her generation was the first to be told by second wave feminism that we could, “be anything we wanted to be,'' the reality is far from that for many Gen X women. Her work examines the female gender in society and art history using sentimentality and craft to define and redefine these intents.
Michalec earned a BFA with distinction in Painting and Drawing and a BA in Art History from The Ohio State University and a MLIS in Library and Information Science from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has shown her work internationally, and has been awarded residencies at The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts Residency in New Berlin, NY, and The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, in Nebraska City, NE. Michalec is a 2021 recipient of an Individual Excellence Award in Craft from the Ohio Arts Council. Her work has been published in Friend of the Artist, Create! Magazine, and Art Maze. A review of her two person show, Femme Maison at Houseguest Gallery in Louisville, KY, was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Education
2005 Master of Library and Information Science, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
2002 Bachelor of Art, Art History, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH0
2000 Bachelor of Fine Art with Distinction, Painting & Drawing, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Grants, Fellowships, and Recognitions
2023 Individual Artist Grant, Montgomery County Cultural Arts District
2022 Recipient of a Dayton Regional Arts Renewal grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by Culture Works Dayton
2021 Individual Excellence Award, Ohio Arts Council
Individual Artist Grant, Montgomery County Cultural Arts District
2020 Fellowship, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, NE
2018 Fellowship, Golden Family Foundation for the Arts Residency, New Berlin, NY
2017 Winner, People’s Choice Award, Art in the City, Dayton, OH
2016 Grant Recipient, Vermont Studio Center residency, Johnson, VT
2016 Featured Artist for Serena & Lily (www.serenaandlily.com)
2015 Best in Show, Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors
2015 Lombard Prize / Best in Show, Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, OH
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Trying to get all my birds to land in the yarn, K Contemporary, Denver, CO
2023 Not to Stifle but to Clarify curated by Dennis Harrington, The Weston Museum, Cincinnati, OH
2022 Three Square Meals of Disaffection, K Contemporary, Denver, CO
2021 From a basement on a hill, The Contemporary, Dayton, OH curated by Michael Goodson
Future Ruin, Roy G. Biv Gallery, Columbus, OH
All that we went through was for nothing. Sean Christopher Gallery, Columbus, OH
2018 Personal Fable, Divisible, Dayton OH curated by Jeffery Cortland Jones
2017 I've never stopped wondering what my life would have been like, Dutoit, Dayton, OH
2015 No Accounting for Taste, Welker Rollins Studio, Kettering, OH
2015 Comes Furnished, Goes Furnished, Wright-Dunbar Historic District, Dayton, OH
Select Exhibitions / Fairs
2024 National Women in the Arts Museum, Women to Watch: New Worlds, Weston Museum Cincinnati, OH, Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center, Portsmouth, OH
2023 Meanwhile curated by Tim Reitenbach, Beeler Gallery, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH
National Women in the Arts Museum, Women to Watch: New Worlds, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH
Medici Museum. Warren, OH, ArtSpace, Lima OH
Intersect Art Palm Springs with K Contemporary, Palm Springs, CA
2022 The Bunker Art Space, Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody, West Palm Beach, FL
Anthem X, Curated by Jared Owens Malin Gallery, New York, NY in Miami, FL
Somebody, Nobody, Anybody, Marquee Projects, Long Island, NY
Intersect Art and Design Aspen with K Contemporary, Aspen, CO
2021 Future Planets, Longwood Museum of Visual Art, curated by James Williams, Longwood, VA
Major Figures, Saatchi Art, Online Exhibition
Unraveled: Confronting the Fabric of Fiber Art, Untitled Space Gallery, New York, NY
2020 I Do Not Ask Any More Delight, Quappi Projects, Louisville, KY
Tuft curated by Tim Eads, Group Projects, Philadelphia, PA
Femme Maison- Mychaelyn Michalec & Karen Weeks, curated by Megan Bickel, Houseguest Gallery, Louisville, KY
2019 Ohio Arts Council Biennial Exhibition, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH
From a Place of Personal Understanding, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH
The Other Art Fair curated by Saatchi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Sentimental and Not, Rueff Galleries, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Body Language, Krasl Art Center, Saint Joseph, MI
/just to be alive/, 1628 Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
Made in Paint 2019, Sam and Adele Golden Gallery, New Berlin, NY
2018 The Other Art Fair curated by Saatchi Gallery, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL
Oh motHER, Custom House Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2017 The Other Art Fair curated by Saatchi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Group Show Invitational, Muse Gallery, Hilton Downtown, Columbus, OH
The Ohio State Fair, Cox Fine Arts Center, Columbus, OH
Hamilton Current, Fitton Center for the Creative Arts, Hamilton, OH
2016 The Dig, Kelsey Projects, Dutoit Gallery, Dayton, OH & Miami Township Library, Miamisburg, OH
Resonate, Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, OH
The Ohio State Fair, Cox Fine Arts Center, Columbus, OH
2015 The Body Electric, Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, OH
Collections
Dayton Metro Public Library
The Collection of Carla Shen
The Collection of Sarah and Michelle Vance Waddell
The Bunker Artspace West Palm Beach Florida / The Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody
Private Collections
Artist Residencies
2021 Object Hotel Residency, Bisbee, AZ
2020 Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, NE
2018 Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts, New Berlin, NY
2016 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Bibliography
Friend of the Artist, Issue 8, 2019
Cooties Zine, Issue 2, 2018
Create! Magazine, Issue 8, 2018
Studio Visit Magazine, Volume 40, 2018
Art Maze Magazine, Issue 4, pg 83, 2017
Artist Talks
2023 Artist Talk, Riffe Gallery, The Ohio Arts Council, Columbus, OH
Artist Talk, Weston Art Gallery Cincinnati, OH
Guest Speaker Miami University, Oxford, OH
Guest Speaker Indiana University East, Richmond, IN
2022 Artist Talk with Poet Maggie Smith, Sarah Gormley Galley, Columbus, OH
2021 Artist Talk, Roy G. Biv Gallery, Columbus, OH
Artist Talk with Curator Michael Goodson, The Contemporary Dayton, Dayton, OH
2020 Artist Talk, Indiana University East, Richmond, IN.
Artist Talk and Guest Curator, Jackson Dinsdale Art Center, Hastings College, Hastings, NE
2019 Artist Talk, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH
Guest Speaker, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH
Guest Speaker, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
2017 Guest Speaker, Department of Art, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH
2016 Artist Talk, Dayton Visual Arts Center, Resonate, Dayton, OH
Artist Talk, Kelsey Projects, Miamisburg, OH
Press
2020 Textile Show at Louisville’s Houseguest Gallery Explores Technology and Motherhood by Natalie Weis. All Things Considered, NPR, WFPL Louisville. February 13, 2020
2020 Artist Mychaelyn Michalec: Motherhood, Taking Time Off & Taking the Reigns of Your Art Career, I Like Your Work Podcast by Erika Hess. Feb 10, 2020.
2019 Ohio Artists in top form in juried exhibition at Riffe Center by Peter Tonguette, Columbus Dispatch. Dec 15, 2019.
2019 Pretty Girls Making Cool Shit
2019 Mychaelyn Michalec, Artist, Mother Maker Podcast
2019 Friend of the Artist, Vol. 8
2018 Five Dots Magazine
2018 The Jealous Curator
2018 Chicago: An Interview with Artist Mychaelyn Michalec, Canvas Blog, Saatchi Art
2018 Seven Questions, Artist Interview-Mychaelyn Michalec, Faithwaites / Cat Greene
2018 Cooties Presents: Mychaelyn Michalec, Cooties Zine
2018 #5 Women Artists: And the Domestic Realm, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts
2018 Create! Magazine, issue 8
2018 Studio Visit Magazine, volume 40
2017 The Art Show, PBS, Season 7, Episode 12, Aired
2017 Elephant Magazine's Five Must See Artists at The Other Art Fair, Canvas Blog, Saatchi Art
2017 Art Maze Magazine, page 83, Issue 4
2017 After Vermont stay, Oakwood artist creates show with memories of home, Pam Dillon, Dayton Daily News
2017 Mychaelyn Michalec: Art Install at Miamisburg Library
2016 Living Dayton, Reimagining Works Interview
2016 Young Space Interview, Young-Space.com
2015 Top Ten for Dayton Visual Arts 2015, Dayton Most Metro
2015 Artists chosen for library's Miamisburg branch, Dayton Daily News
2015 Painting in the Dark, Dayton at Work and Play
2015 Michalec wins Lombard Prize, Best in Show at DVAC exhibit
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