Welcome to Season 6 of Talk Art! Recorded on 10th April 2020, we chat to Troy Michie, the acclaimed American collage artist, painter, interdisciplinary installation artist, and sculptor based in New York City. Michie's work is often in dialogue with the canon of collage; as well as investigating society's understanding of race, gender, sexuality, and other fields of identity and power. This episode is released on the anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles from June 3-8th 1943, which has been frequently referenced in Michie's work.

We discuss the history of collage, vintage erotic and pornographic magazines, his hometown of El Paso, a border city between USA and Mexico, growing up bilingual, lies about immigration, racial stereotypes, media misconceptions and the ‘fear of the other’. We explore woven paper collage, a new development in Troy’s practice, as well as assemblage works on wooden panels, and sewing through paper.

We explore the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots and his body of work referencing the dapper & flamboyant Zoot Suit style, Jazz music, Pachuco culture and its long lasting impact on popular culture including mainstream films Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugsy Malone and Dick Tracey. We discuss camouflage theory & Roland Penrose's disruptive patterning theory, Razzle Dazzle warships, queerness and the camouflaging the self within society, safety of marginalised communities and in particular the violence and murders of the transgender community in New York.

His admiration for Nancy Brooks Brody, Mark Bradford, Magritte and the Surrealists, Méret Oppenheim, Frida Kahlo, Hannah Höch, Nouveau réalisme, Kara Walker, John Stezaker, Wangechi Mutu and Wilfredo Lam. We reflect on his works in shows at New Museum, the Whitney Biennial 2019 and his primary gallery Company. We discover the inspiration he drew from The Invisible Man novel and how he hopes to honour the memory of his grandmother and his family of hard working women, growing up listening to eclectic music by Sugar Cubes to Aretha Franklin and writing songs himself.

Follow @TroyMichie on Instagram, his official website https://www.troymichie.com/ and please also visit Troy's gallery @CompanyGallery and their website https://companygallery.us/. For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to Talk Art, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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