New York, NY - My Pet Ram is pleased to present And The Sun Rose Regardless, the first New York solo exhibition for Los Angeles-based artist Michael Haight. 

Michael Haight and his mellifluous paintings in And The Sun Rose Regardless create a personal connection to the crepuscule, the time directly before the sunrise and after the sunset, as the harbinger of poetic meaning and nostalgic reverie while the world drifts into and out of twilight.

Haight’s paintings hinge upon personal nostalgia for a life half-remembered. Thinking back to his formative years and a proclivity for staying up until the sun rose, his early morning gazings then were more a means to stave off the inevitable hangover than for any romantic ideal. After achieving sobriety, he reapproached the wee hours with a sense of wonder and a penchant for rumination that was previously rendered numb by alcohol. Works like Trojan Court are full of minutiae that reward extended looking as the viewer clears the visual fog with their ever-seeking eyes. The detailed and often bizarre settings give up their secrets the more you stay with them, much as one might sink into a trance before the green flash of dawn.

At first glance, the paintings in this exhibition are gauzy and immaterial. Their abstract qualities become overwhelming in the density of paint application and translucent layers. But herein lies the rub: by meditating upon each canvas one becomes keenly aware of the sheer amount of visual information Haight packs into his work. The washy fields of color are given form by calligraphic lines that resemble traditional Chinese scroll paintings of fu dogs and tipsy literati in the misty gardens. But where those minimalist studies on enlightenment left room to breathe, pieces like The House on the Hill crave your attention and cater toward our most investigative propensities.

From observations of light and its ability to change the physical into something more ethereal, Haight gives uneasy form to subjects, locations, and otherwise ubiquitous settings. “As for my figures,” he notes, “I like to think of them in abstract terms. I use lines of color to generate the appearance of gigantic frozen wavelengths of photons, shining in their specific frequency; but not without a nod towards an arm, a leg, a finger, or a cloud. This process began to remind me of my experiences of witnessing the sunrise—and specifically, the point when it seems the sun shines right at YOU, the viewer.” The ability to witness these transformative moments became increasingly important as the years separated Haight from his youthful dalliances. He realized that all of his early attempts at drunken enlightenment had failed. Instead, a thoughtful look back on his unstructured follies was more like the revelation he sought than anything he crafted, fumbling, in the dark.

And The Sun Rose Regardless will be on view beginning Friday, September 8 through Sunday, October 8, 2023. The gallery is located at 48 Hester Street in the Lower East Side. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 12-6pm and by appointment. For more information about this exhibition, please email info@mypetram.com.

Text By Graham W. Bell

And The Sun Rose Regardless will be on view beginning Friday, September 8 through Sunday, October 8, 2023. The gallery is located at 48 Hester Street in the Lower East Side. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 12-6pm and by appointment. For more information about this exhibition, please email info@mypetram.com.

Michael Haight (b.1984, Fontana, CA) was raised in the Inland Empire of Southern California and now lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of California at Riverside, CA and has an MA in Visual Art from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA. The Artist has shown in spaces throughout the US and Europe including Phillips Auction House in London, UK; G/Art/En Gallery in Como, Italy; One Trick Pony Gallery and LA Beast Gallery in Los Angeles, CA; Lyles and King in New York, NY; UTA Artist Space in Beverly Hills, CA; OCCCA in Santa Ana, CA; LACE in Hollywood, CA and Cirrus Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. His work has been featured in the publications Architectural Digest (2022), New American Paintings (2021, 2022, 2023), Art Maze (2021) and the collaborative book, with the Poet Cutter Streeby, entitled Tension: Rupture (Tupelo Press 2021).