Established as a pianist and teacher in the Berkshires since the late 60s, Myron "Mike" Schiffer has an established history of exploring the avant garde. Prior to living in the area, Schiffer lived and worked in New York City, studying with John Mehegan and Hall Overton as well as playing, teaching and hanging around the fringes of jazz.Fascinated with music and the visual arts since childhood, Schiffer enrolled in photography at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Working in black and white at the time, he was most notably inspired by Richard Avedon's fashion photography. Once introduced to color, he was deeply moved by the mystical color fields of Georgia O'Keefe and Mark Rothko and considers this work his strongest influence.
Now that he's entered his ninth decade, he's fulfilling his dream of indulging his interest in photography which he started to explore in the 1970s. For the last year he's been busy exhibiting his work at galleries, frame shops, Kimball Farms retirement community, Castle Street Café and in the North Adams Open Studio show.
His current work is a minimalist expression of color, light and space, also revealing a strong influence of contemporary jazz and classical music, e.g. "Intuition" by Lennie Tristano, the first recorded example of spontaneous collective improvisation. Schiffer's graffiti and urban "Street Art" follow along the same lines, capturing aleatory and found images.
After a five month run, his Castle Street Café exhibit is taking a break until it reopens with new work in the fall. This show will feature more canvases from his "Motion Capture" series.
A small selection of Myron's miniatures can also be seen at the Red Lion Inn Gift Shop in Stockbridge, MA. For more information please contact the studio at 413-637-2659 or email myron@myronschiffer.com
His music may be heard at www.mikeschiffer.com
