Michael Zieve

Born and raised in Chicago, Michael studied painting at Rhode Island School of Design and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977.

He began showing his work through Nancy Lurie Gallery in Chicago in 1980. During the ensuing years he exhibited widely in various venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art/ Chicago, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the Center d'Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland.

His early work was influenced by the Chicago Imagist movement, German Expressionism and early Modernism. This work evolved into a more representational mode influenced by American Ashcan artists of the 1930's / 40's and his inner city environs. Michael continued to show his work through Phyllis Kind Gallery in Chicago and New York into 1989. In the same year he established his own decorative arts studio in Chicago.

In 1993, Michael relocated from Chicago to a nature preserve in Laporte, Indiana and opened his studio in Three Oaks, MI. In 1998 he executed two large historical murals for the U.S. Post Office in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. His growing interest in eastern spirituality and art as a healing modality led him to begin facilitating intuitive painting workshops in 2004 and this had a direct impact on his own work.

His commissioned works are featured in many hospitals and healing centers including Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Marionjoy Rehabilitation Hospital, Wheaton, IL. Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, IL. and the Namaste Center for Holistic Health, Laporte, IN.

In 2011 Michael migrated to Sebastopol, California. That year he participated in the annual creativity and meditation intensive at Spirit Rock Meditation Center led by Barbara Kaufman and others. In 2017 he exhibited his paintings at the Science and Non Duality Conference (SAND) in San Jose, Ca.

His classes 'Process Painting and Somatic Inquiry', and 'Mixed Media Composting Circle' were featured at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and the Petaluma Arts Center until the Covid pandemic arrived. He now offers his 'Recognition Arts Circle' classes online, a synthesis of intuitive process, aesthetic appreciation, image dialogue and studio practice.

His studio is in Sebastopol Ca.