Michael Beitz

"Dining Table"  wood

"Dining Table"  wood

"It's no Picnic Table"  wood

from "Body/Brick"  cement

from "Body/Brick"  cement

Michael Beitz enjoys a visual joke. But the humor is not just silliness. He's playing with the ideas of organic and man-made form, juxtaposing the two in a variety of ways in order to reconsider their meaning. When a table is no longer a flat surface is it still a table? What if the walls really did have ears? Or noses? The artist seems less driven by consistent intellectual inquiry than by whim and whimsy, turning what-if doodles into realities. This is not a criticism. Artist's sometimes get a little too full of themselves, believing that the rigor of their intellectual thought can sustain the aesthetic of their creations. It usually does not. Better to explore with open wonder and see what profound ideas emerge from the chaos. That is the real wellspring of art. Craft, discipline, intelligence, and critical thinking are all important tools for any artform, and if undeveloped the art will fail. But they should never control the art. They should become like muscle memory, acting to realize the artist's playful imaginings. In this sense Michael Beitz's work occasionally succeeds brilliantly. There's not a whole lot of work on his website but there is a tree with hinged branches, a house frame that gently folds up,  a pair of giant hands operated by bike pedals that will slap the operator and more, so it's worthwhile taking a look. I look forward to seeing what he does next.
www.michaelbeitz.com