Michael Newhall reception

media release: Long-time Buddhist practitioner, ordained monk, and emeritus guiding teacher of Jikoji Zen Center, artist Michael Newhall’s work explores Buddhist references in assemblage sculptures, sumi ink, casein and in oil painting. An NEA Fellow, Newhall taught at SAIC, MIAD and Naropa University, and currently holds Milwaukee's 2024 Mary Nohl Foundation Fellowship.

He will be speaking about his work during the exhibition reception, 5:00 - 7:30 pm, Thursday, October 16, 2025.

"This selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures from 2006 through 2025 reference Buddhist iconography – sometimes overt, sometimes implicit, often with ironic or playful conversions. A Chicago Imagist background and a willful inversion from the clean minimalism of Japanese aesthetics has propelled this work toward dense fields of imagery. The monk heads or faces, the bust sculptures and the small buddhabimbas, playful or not, may invite psychological unfolding, or an inquiry into identity and diversity issues, both of self and of one’s community."   

                       - Michael Newhall (Kuzan Shohō)