Michael Pinsky

Dr Michael Pinsky

Reader

Fine Art

Department of Architecture & Visual Arts , School Of Architecture, Computing And Engineering

Dr Michael Pinsky MA(RCA), BA(Hons), AdDip (ArtEd), Dip A&D. Dr Pinsky is an artist with a significant international career.

Areas Of Interest

  • Fine Art
Michael Pinsky

OVERVIEW

Michael Pinsky is a British artist whose international projects challenge the status quo on climate change, urban design and societal wellbeing. He explores issues which shape and influence the use of our public realm to create ambitious and provocative installations in galleries and public spaces. Taking the combined roles of artist, urban planner, activist, researcher and resident, he starts residencies and commissions by working with local people and resources, allowing the physical, social and political environment to define his working methodology.

His work has been shown at: TATE Britain; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu; Saatchi Gallery; Victoria and Albert Museum; Institute for Contemporary Art, London; La Villette, Paris; BALTIC, Gateshead; Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Modern Art Oxford, KunstMuseum Bonn, Cornerhouse, Manchester; Liverpool Biennial, Centre de Création Contemporaine, Tours; Armory Center of the Arts, Los Angeles and the Rotterdam International Architectural Biennial.

His recent installation Pollution Pods is touring internationally and has been exhibited in Somerset House, London, COP28 Dubai, MAC, Birmingham, KunstMuseum Bonn, St Johns College, Oxford, Draiflessen Collection, GermanyCOP 26, Glasgow; COP25, IFEMA, Madrid, Spain; UN Climate Change Summit, New York; Science Gallery Melbourne; Media City Plaza, Manchester; TED Annual Conference, Vancouver; Place des Nations, Geneva; Klimahaus, BremerHaven, Germany and STARMUS, Trondheim, Norway.

Artnet included Pollution Pods in its list of the '100 Works of Art That Defined the Decade'. Stir Magazine, named the installation in its top ten Art works 'that stirred the world in 2019'. Connaissance des Arts, included Pollution Pods in the top 10 artworks which engage with climate change and BBC Culture featured the installation for Earth Day as 'one of the best ways to change the world'.

Dr Michael Pinsky graduated from the Royal College of Art. He has received awards from the RSA, Arts Council England, British Council, Arts and Business, the Wellcome Trust and his exhibition Pontis was shortlisted for the prestigious Gulbenkian Museums Award.

CURRENT RESEARCH

Current research

Pollution pods

Five interconnected geodesic domes contain carefully mixed recipes emulating the relative presence of ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide which pollute London, New Delhi, San Paolo and Beijing. Starting from a coastal location in Norway, the visitor passes through increasingly polluted cells, from dry and cold locations to hot and humid.

Pollution Pods has been commissioned by NTNU as part of Climart a four-year research project that examines the underlying psychological mechanisms involved in both the production and reception of visual art using these findings in an attempt to unite the natural sciences to the visual arts.

This installation has been exhibited at the following venues:

  • COP25, IFEMA, Madrid, Spain
  • UN Climate Change Summit, UN Buildings, New York City, USA
  • Activate, Brownsea Island
  • Science Gallery Melbourne, Australia
  • B-Side, Portland, Dorset
  • Media City Plaza, Manchester
  • TED Annual Conference, Vancouver, Canada
  • Somerset House, London
  • Place des Nations, Geneva
  • Klimahaus, BremerHaven, Germany
  • Climart, Trondheim, Norway

Previous research

City Speaks
The City Speaks, functions as a 21st century Speakers' Corner in which open-air public speaking takes on epic proportions as spoken words are translated to text and relayed on one of the towers supporting Hull's tidal barrier. A steel lectern located on the quayside of Humber Dock offers a platform for members of the public to broadcast their thoughts and feelings. A hidden microphone captures their words and sends them to a data processing cloud which transcribes the phases into a scrolling dot-matrix text ascending the tidal barrier. The plinth and the tidal barrier perfectly align allowing the speaker to see their own speech being emitted across Hull.

Commissioned by Hull City of Culture.

L'eau Qui Dort
Lurking deep below the surface of Ourcq Canal jettisoned objects awaited recovery. Over the years their surfaces gained the complexion of aquatic wreckage. Forty of these ghostly objects mysteriously appeared upright on the surface of the canal water, bathed in aquamarine light. Again visible, these bicycles, shopping trolleys, signs and fridges confronted their owners, demonstrating that society's desire for the new can only be supported by rendering the old invisible. An eerie composition generated from these objects emanated from spaces around the canal to form an intricate three-dimensional soundscape.

L'eau Qui Dort was commissioned by COAL for La Villette during COP21 in Paris.

This installation has been exhibited at the following venues:

  • Nuit Blanche, Brussels, Belgium
  • Parc de la Villette, Paris

TEACHING

BA (Hons) Fine Art

Unleash creativity with Fine Art at the University of East London. Ignite your career in the arts, explore diverse courses in art and fine art for a thriving future.

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MA Fine Art

Elevate your artistic vision with a Master's in Fine Art at University of East London. Unleash your creativity through our advanced fine art programme.

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Prof Doc Fine Art

Explore the pinnacle of creativity with a PhD in Fine Art at the University of East London. Elevate your artistic journey with advanced research and innovation.

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Publications

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Full publications list

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Research repository