Fellows at 30: Michael Ferris Jr.

“NYFA is truly the ‘friend of the artist.’ Artists know how difficult and discouraging the art world can be and every artist needs a supportive friend.”

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of our Fellowship Program, NYFA interviewed Fellow in Sculpture ‘09, former Panelist, and past member of the Artist Advisory Committee, Michael Ferris Jr. Michael’s sculptures are constructed out of reclaimed wood and pigmented wood glue. He lives and works in New York City.

For more information on NYFA’s 30th Anniversary click here and to learn more about Michael click here.

NYFA: From receiving a NYFA Fellowship in Sculpture to serving as a panelist for Fiscal Sponsorship to recently exhibiting at NYFA’s Hall of Fame benefit, you’re familiar with NYFA’s diverse programming. In your experience, what does NYFA offer artists that isn’t available elsewhere? How has NYFA supported your career?

MF: NYFA’s programming is incredibly creative and experimental. They are continually expanding upon their role in positively influencing the lives of artists. NYFA is truly the “friend of the artist.” Artists know how difficult and discouraging the art world can be and every artist needs a supportive friend. From NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Program, to their Doctor’s Hours Program, to their Fiscal Sponsorship Program, etc., everything NYFA does is completely directed toward providing valuable information and opportunities to help artists survive, succeed, and flourish in a very challenging New York and International art world.

NYFA has supported my career immensely. I was granted a NYFA fellowship and was also invited to contribute to art panels. NYFA has included my work in exhibitions and invited me to join NYFA’s Artist Advisory Committee in 2012. All of these things have been a great support to my career. NYFA has given me an affirmation in my belief in being an artist by helping me to maintain the deep feeling I have for art itself.

Over the years, I have gotten to know NYFA’s community and the programs they have created and are currently directing. What NYFA is, and what they will become as they move forward, inspires me in a profound way. Take for example NYFA’s art sales program. Most collectors care about the artists whose work they collect. It’s very important to collectors that artists are treated well and fairly. For every art sale NYFA makes, the artist receives 85% of the sale. The artist also receives their payment with no delay. I believe that in years to come NYFA’s art sales program, not to mention all the other great NYFA programs, will grow, expand and ultimately completely revolutionize the status quo in the New York art world.

NYFA: Your work is currently on view at McKinsey & Company in NYFA’s exhibition, Changes: New Identities, Ideologies and Technologies. What’s it like to see your work in a corporate space? Do you believe an office environment changes the perception of the work as opposed to a gallery setting?

MF: The NYFA McKinsey exhibition will be on display for many months so the show will be viewed, processed, and enjoyed over an extended period of time. In essence, the employees at McKinsey will be living with the show. I find this dynamic of viewing art interesting as it deepens the personal connections people will have with the artist’s work.

Concurrent with the NYFA Changes show reception, McKinsey was also throwing its weekly office mixer, which consisted of food, live music, humorous improvisational role games for its employees, as well as a casual tour of the art show with the NYFA artists. McKinsey & Company, as well as many other corporations, are experimenting with events like this as a way to boost creativity, generate morale and open up a free flowing dialog among its workforce.

I would love to see more art appear more often in less common settings such as corporate offices, schools, and public spaces. I think visual art’s most powerful asset is how it can communicate quietly and indirectly by stimulating the unconscious mind, and in doing so, unlocking our own unexpected creative thoughts.

NYFA: On your website, you mention that much of your inspiration originates from inlaid Middle Eastern backgammon tables made by your father, who was Lebanese. How does this translate into your work?

MF: My father was a dual citizen of Lebanon and the United States so I grew up with a strong understanding of his and my cultural heritage. One aspect of this heritage that I was familiar with were two fine inlaid backgammon tables that were made in the Middle East and were always present in my home in Chicago. When I started making wood sculptures nearly 25 years ago, I inexplicably gravitated to the idea of surfacing these sculptures with a kind of self-invented wood overlay technique. As the years went by, and I continued to make and develop these sculptures, I realized that this wood overlay technique had been inspired by my father’s backgammon tables. So, I really don’t consider my work to be a product of identity, not exactly anyway. More accurately, my work is a product of extended meaningful unconscious visual learning.

My father passed away many years ago but I still visit my family in Lebanon every few years. In more recent times, I have become more comfortable with the notion of my work as an expression of my heritage. Regarding the origins of my work, I tend to prefer a more nuanced and personal explanation. My sculptures are inspired by the memory and love I have for my father, a very proud Lebanese-American.

NYFA: NYFA’s Artist Advisory Committee governs the Fellowship Program and is comprised exclusively of working artists. You joined this body in 2012 and just completed your term, could you tell us about your experience serving on this committee? What made you want to participate?

MF: I served on the Artist Advisory Committee for four years. The majority of the time we reviewed that cycle‘s fellowship information and fellowship winners as well as discussed ideas on how the selection process could improve in the future. I wanted to participate because I was curious to know more about how NYFA functioned and how artists played a role in the development of the fellowship program. What I came away with was how much artists care about other artists. The overall feeling expressed by the committee was a determination to generate and contribute ideas that would ultimately help artists progress and succeed.

The committee was also given updates into some of the great exhibition opportunities NYFA is providing its fellowship grantees and finalists and how it will be expanding its exhibition programming in the future. It was really wonderful to be a part of the committee and in a small way contribute to the future of a great organization like NYFA.

NYFA: What’s coming up for you next?

MF: This summer I will be working on my sculpture at the Roswell Artist-in-Residency in New Mexico.

– Madeline Scholl (Program Associate, Alumni Relations and 30th Anniversary)

Follow the work of past and present NYFA Fellows on Twitter at #NYFAFellows30 and find out more about the activities planned for our 30th Anniversary on our website. NYFA’s Artists’ Fellowship Program awards $7,000 grants to individual artists in New York State.

Images, from top: Carl Timpone/BFA.com, 2016; Anne, 2010; Michael Ferris studio shot courtesy of the artist, 2015; Carl Timpone/BFA.com, 2016.