Michael Contino (b. 1983, Phoenix, AZ) is an interdisciplinary studio artist living in the Northern suburbs of Chicago.

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Coded and Conceptual, Contino’s subject matter flirts with the frailness of memory, the emptiness of loss and grief, and a longing for a deeper connection to the silent observer within. A daily practice of automatic writing inspires Contino’s subject matter. As far back as 2002, manifestations of horizon lines have connected Contino’s work in combinations of drawings, photographs, installations, and paintings.

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These landscape-like forms have evolved to include material making from the physical environment Contino finds himself in. Now obsessed with the process of natural ink making, Contino has surrendered to a new medium. A temporal intimacy presents as his inks physically change on paper. Michael Contino’s recent artworks evoke erosion patterns, decay, and oxidation and once again show signs of an emerging abstraction of horizon lines.