Focus Magazine of SWFL Cheers To Your Style | Page 167

Michael St. Amand

United States of America

St. Amand (Born 1958) uses a multi-disciplined approach to his art making – painting,
printmaking, digital art, video, sculpture, installations, and mixed media constructs.
The artist’s work cannot be classified within a particular generation of art movements.
St. Amand’s style is a combination of Avant-Garde, Abstract Expressionism, Modernism, and Color-Field Painting. The artist focuses on the basic elements of an artwork
– color, shape, and composition and chooses materials to psychologically evoke certain
kinds of feelings.
St. Amand’s paintings affect the space in which they hang. His use of multi-layered
raw, vibrant color and fluorescent pigments put the viewer on the spot. His paintings vibrate with energy and light causing the art to interact with the audience. The
artwork reflects glaring bursts of color back at the viewer, necessitating a multi-angled
tour of the canvas in order to form a complete image of it. Because of the way light
reacts to the fluorescent pigments, as ones physical relationship to them changes so
does the artwork.

Repicant 2012

There is nothing “quick” about St. Amand's work. His art needs time to be ingested,
digested, and contemplated. Messages are coming from all sides -- political, social,
cultural, sexual, and aesthetical. St. Amand juxtaposes the sacred with the profane
and leaves the viewers to determine where on the continuum their perceptions lie.
“All the objects are just objects. As with all art, it is what the viewer brings to it,” St.
Amand says of his work. “It is the viewer’s own – very personal – reactionary emotion or self-analysis. Whether it is disdain or shock, passion or compassion, every
person will create his or her own truth attached to the work.” This is at the heart
of St. Amand’s work. As art, his pieces are unique and visually engaging. As social
commentary, they are thought evoking and provoking. His work inspires conversation
and insight into three worlds: the artist’s, the one in which we all share, and the very
personal one within each individual.
Michael St. Amand, with the endorsement of the United States Embassy and The
Georgian Ministry of Culture, had two solo exhibitions: Myths and Mayhem exhibited
at the Tbilisi History Museum and the Signagi Museum in the Republic of Georgia in
2013. In addition he has earned numerous awards for his work. The artist has been
listed in Art in America Magazine’s Who’s Who in American Art. He has exhibited
his art nationally and internationally, including Paris, Bordeaux, New York City, The
Republic of Georgia, Germany, Dallas, New Zealand, Washington, D.C., and throughout
Florida. His work can be found in many corporate and private collections.
Photo Credit: Michael St. Amand by Nicholas Berdysheff

Tipping Point 2013

www.michaelstamand.com

FOCUS of SWFL 2014 167