michael alexander pio harper is an artist, art historian, and researcher. he received his ba and ma in the history of art at johns hopkins university in baltimore, specializing in italian futurist art and later twentieth century/contemporary receptions of the avant-garde. his thesis, force-lines and fault lines: paradoxes of movement, art historiography, and photography during italian futurism’s “classical” period (1909-1914), explored futurist tensions with the photographic medium, its relationship to art historiography, and 19th century scientific studies of animal locomotion as well as philosophies of the fourth dimension. the futurists were primarily concerned with the expression of movement; they believed the camera apparatus to operate inversely, freezing the subject from the ever-moving world, allocating it to the sphere of the past, and thus rendering a false depiction of reality. the essay hailed anton giulio bragaglia, futurism’s only photographer, to resolve photography's apparent shortcomings that his painter colleagues struggled to negotiate.
michael’s artistic practice is influenced by his research of the futurist movement and 20th century avant-gardism, interested in the push and pull between the mechanical, industrial and the organic. futurism's complicated history with fascism makes the movement all the more worth exploring within an age threatened with making the same mistakes as the past. his work also finds inspiration in the antiquarian and holds particular value to materials like 18th century laid paper or oil paint, significant to the development of western art. in another vein, the duchampian model of the found object finds itself within the michael's work, often incorporating materials like vintage cigar boxes, discarded matchbooks, and the likes. currently, michael is learning the art of copperplate etching at the art students league of new york.
michael harper has worked at art institutions and organizations like the metroplitian museum of art, the morgan library & museum, the baltimore museum of art, johns hopkins university’s special collections, the evergreen museum & library, the valerie j. maynard foundation, nancy rosen, cindy glanzrock realartmuse, and arader galleries. he is currently based in nyc in the UWS.
exhibitions
the art students league printmaking student salon (march - april 2025)
roosevelt island visual arts assoc. 'the road ahead' exhibition (june 27 - july 14, 2024)
johns hopkins university visual arts department student exhibition (may 2022)
