Michael Bergt

Fight or Flight

Michael Bergt is an internationally recognized figurative artist known for his mastery of a variety of media, from his renowned egg tempera paintings and pencil drawings to bronze sculpture. Ambiguity is a central tenent in his process and allows for reflection on the paradoxes of the human condition. Using diverse sources of visual cultures from the East to the West, Bergt’s work unites the two major themes of figurative art, the sensual and the spiritual into works of delicate mastery. Michael Bergt has received numerous international awards, including one of his works being featured in the 2018 BP Portrait Award, the most prestigious painting competition in the world, at the National Portrait Gallery in London, as well as one of his works being selected for the “out of the box” category in the 2020 National Portrait Society of America competition. Bergt has shown his work nationally and internationally for over forty years in numerous solo and group museum exhibitions including the Arnot Museum, Elmira, New York; Belvedere Place, Vienna, Austria; Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; de Young Museum, San Francisco, California; the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washinging; The Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, Indiana; and Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Michael Bergt’s paintings and sculptures have been featured in a multitude of publications, and have won numerous awards both domestically and abroad. His work is held in countless public and private collections, among them the: Fons D’Art del Diari Avui, Barcelona, Spain; de Young Museum, San Francisco, California; Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, New York; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; The Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; and California Palace of the Legion of Honor; San Francisco, California.