Mike Goldberg

My art explores the process of memory. I’m interested in telling the untold stories of unknown people who have faded from memory yet have a powerful story to tell. My art focuses on resurrecting memories through an interactive installation that us...

My art explores the process of memory. I’m interested in telling the untold stories of unknown people who have faded from memory yet have a powerful story to tell. My art focuses on resurrecting memories through an interactive installation that uses the senses of vision, sound and scent to trigger memories. Memory became an integral component of my art when at 23 years old I became the head mental health counselor of a locked psychiatric unit where I was responsible for hundreds of patients. I engaged with countless people whose moving, yet untold stories were only going to buried in that institution. There’s great value for me in exploring the every person within the context of the celebrity culture we live in. As an artist I felt compelled to tell those stories with both my paintings and my interactive installation. My installation, by design destroys my paintings to illustrate the concept of resurrected memories. My paintings are placed in an enclosed plexiglass container filled with saltwater that dissolves the painting into pulp. Attached to the container are a box filled with scents such as tobacco or mothballs and there's also an iPod attached containing a soundtrack. Both of these components are representative of the particular subject. As the portrait disintegrates, as in real life when memories fade, we are left with only the scent and sound of that subject which act as triggers that essentially resurrects that person in our mind. My art explores the small stories of people you've never heard of. There’s importance in not forgetting. I’m a contemporary artist living in San Francisco. Graduating from Boston University with a degree in Psychology, I also studied at Boston’s Fenway Studios in the École Des Beaux-Arts style and in Manhattan, at the School Of Visual Arts. I have shown my work at galleries in New York City, including a show at Sotheby’s, Los Angeles and in the San Francisco Bay Area.