Michael Vasquez

Michael Vasquez was born in St. Petersburg, Florida; USA where he currently lives and works. He graduated from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida in 2005 and began his career as an artist.

He is most recognized for his works that explore identity and the cultivation of community amidst an inherent disposition of broken homes inside marginalized neighborhoods. Through figurative painting and portraiture, he legitimatizes this complex social landscape; narrating neighborhood events, mischief, and the trials and tribulations that come with the territory as his subjects navigate the expectations and pressures of their peers and society at large.

His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in galleries and institutions such as the Saatchi Gallery, London; the Americas Society, New York City; The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.; and in Florida at the Frost Art Museum; MOCA North Miami; the Orlando Museum of Art; the Naples Museum of Art; the Bass Museum, and the Miami Art Museum. In addition, he has mounted solo museum exhibitions at the Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN; and the Miami-Dade College Museum of Art + Design, Miami, FL.

Currently, his work is included in “The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century,” which debuted at the Baltimore Museum of Art and will subsequently travel to the Saint Louis Art Museum; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany; Cincinnati Art Museum, and Art Gallery of Toronto, Canada.