Michael Reddick
(active 21st century)
ActiveConnecticut, United States
BiographyA close look at Michael Reddick’s drawings reveals that their sinewy contours are made up of faces, figures, disembodied eyes, and bestial shapes. They flow into each other, coming in and out of perceptibility. Rendered in diaphanous shades made by repeatedly sketching with and erasing layers of graphite, the works suggest larger visages gazing out from the nightmarish imagery. Some have architectural structures referencing prisons, extermination camps, and other places of confinement. Mostly they are grayscale, although sometimes they have subtle hints of hues added with colored pencil and pastel. The texture of the drawings’ surfaces—frequently a thick Bristol board paper often used for watercolors—further enhances the fleshy, cartilage-like appearance of the contorted forms. With their wispy lines, they evoke a struggle against disappearance or decay.Reddick made these drawings while incarcerated in Connecticut as part of the Community Partners in Action (CPA) (formerly the Connecticut Prison Association) Prison Arts Program. Since 1978, the program has supported art practices of inmates in Connecticut prisons by providing materials, instruction, and exhibition opportunities. According to Phyllis Kornfeld in her book Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America (1997), Reddick started drawing while in solitary confinement, using the cell walls as a canvas, and found through this artistic outlet that the “only way of taking control of my hyperactive moods is by describing them.”
His work has been exhibited since the late 1990s through the CPA’s annual exhibitions, group shows on prison art, and representation by Margaret Bodell Gallery in New York.
Allison C. Meier, 2025
Text written as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).