Michael Ashkin is an American artist who makes

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, videos, photographs and installations depicting marginalized, desolate landscapes. He is a professor at

Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University is one of the world's most highly regarded and prestigious schools of architecture and has the only department in the Ivy League that offers the Bachelor of Architecture ...

. Ashkin was a 2009

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. Ashkin is best known for his use of miniature scale and modest materials. He had his first solo show in 1996, and his floor sculpture called ''No. 49,'' was included in the 1997

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

. His work has been featured at the

Andrea Rosen Gallery Andrea Rosen Gallery is an art gallery in New York City, founded by Andrea Rosen in 1990. With two locations in the Chelsea neighborhood, the gallery specializes in contemporary and modern art, representing an international group of establishe ...

in New York, the

Renaissance Society The Renaissance Society, founded in 1915, is a leading independent contemporary art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago, with a focus on the commissioning and production of new works by international artists. The kunsthalle- ...

in Chicago,

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austr ...

, and in

Documenta11 Documenta11 was the eleventh edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 8 June and 15 September 2002 in Kassel, Germany. The artistic director was Okwui Enwezor.Documenta11_Plattform5: Ausstellung. Ka ...

in Germany. Ashkin authored ''Garden State'', a book which compares the

New Jersey Meadowlands New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the primary river flowing through it, is a general name for the large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to the west of ...

to a

formal garden A formal garden is a garden with a clear structure, geometric shapes and in most cases a symmetrical layout. Its origin goes back to the gardens which are located in the desert areas of Western Asia and are protected by walls. The style of a forma ...

. In 2014, A-Jump Books published Ashkin's
Long Branch
' a book of photographs and text documenting the destruction of a New Jersey neighborhood and in 201
TIS Books
published a book of photographs from Berlin entitled ''Horizont''. 2019 saw the release of ''were it not for'' fro
FW:Books
a book that combines photographs of the Mojave desert with sentences that begin with the book's title. Ashkin was born in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

in 1955, the son of

Arthur Ashkin Arthur Ashkin (September 2, 1922 – September 21, 2020) was an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of optical tweezers, "LaserFest – th ...

, a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning physicist. He is also the nephew of the physicist

Julius Ashkin Julius Ashkin (August 23, 1920 – June 4, 1982) was a leader in experimental and theoretical physics known for furthering the evolution of particle physics from nuclear physics. As a theoretical physicist he made contributions in the fields of st ...

. Before becoming an artist, he taught Arabic and received an M.A. in Middle East Languages and Cultures from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and then worked as a computer programmer.

References

External links

*
Artist Official Website
*
Cornell University profile
*
2009 Guggenheim Foundation Profile
1955 births Living people Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Cornell University faculty People from Morristown, New Jersey {{US-artist-stub