WHAT RIGHT HAS MY HEAD TO CALL ITSELF ME
MICHAEL ANTKOWIAK
OCTOBER 7TH - 29TH, 2016
RECEPTION OCT 7TH 6-9PM
“At what precise moment...
...does an individual stop being who he thinks he is?
You know, I don't like complications.
Cut off my arm. I say, "Me and my arm."
You cut off my other arm. I say, "Me and my two arms."
You...take out...
...take out my stomach, my kidneys,
assuming that were possible...
And I say, "Me and my intestines."
Follow me?
And now, if you cut off my head...
...would I say, "Me and my head" or "Me and my body"?
What right has my head to call itself me?
What right?”
Excerpt from the film “The Tenant”, 1976, by Roman Polanski.
Michael Antkowiak (Warsaw, 1977) is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, and completed his MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2003. He has since exhibited in public and commercial galleries in Canada and abroad, including the Queens Museum of Art, in New York City, and Carrie Secrist Gallery, in Chicago, Il. Michael is a recipient of several artist’s grants and residencies, including the Toronto Arts Council Grant, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. Michael lives and works in Toronto, and in addition to his studio practice, teaches as a drawing and painting instructor at OCAD University.
Blue, oil on canvas 12”x16” 2016