2018 Catalogue Archive

Jewels, antique furniture, silver, and other collectibles rest upon brightly-colored backgrounds in Sean Micka’s recent series of paintings. Micka places the image off-center and frames it on three sides with a crisp white border, mimicking the layout of his source material: photographs from auction catalogues. His hyper-realistic style links the craftsmanship found in these rarefied objects with the craft of painting. Both diamonds and oil paintings serve as objects of beauty, objects of desire, and symbols of wealth. Micka was born in Boston, where he attended The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, and was part of the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum from 2012–2014.