American , born 1966
Referencing his favorite bands, fashion labels, racing cars, and the like, Michael Bevilacqua’s semi-autobiographical mixed-media works serve as a platform for exposing his cultural preferences. Known for combining high and low culture through elements of painting, drawing, graphic design, animation, and collage, Bevilacqua characteristically works in a saturated palette, covering his glossy canvases with brand logos and doodles. Stylistically influenced by pop and color field painting. he is also technically indebted to Andy Warhol for using screen-printing as a brush. “On the Surface Bevilacqua’s work resembles an updated version of Pop Art,” wrote one critic, but he actually uses this imagery as a cryptic language about himself, his family, his art, and his internal struggle to achieve a balance between these worlds.