Michelle Kaufman works in Long Island City, Queens. She received her BA in Economics from Bryn Mawr College, PA, in 1986. After Kaufman worked in the business world for fifteen years, she boarded the plane that took off one hour before the 9/11 plane that went down in Pittsburgh. When the pilot abruptly notified the passengers that they were landing in Lincoln, Nebraska due to a “national emergency” – she thought the world had ended—for her world stood still as she learned she could not communicate with her office, family or friends. Five years after that flight, she studied Art at Hunter College, NY.

She reads historical documents on World System Theory, debt, slavery, war, revolution, collapse, financial systems, complexity, power, disease, prehistoric man, and ethics. Her current work is focused on creating visual metaphors that explore the dynamics of global power structures.

Kaufman approaches an idea with no set technique. She develops artwork about our past and future state of being by meditating on her reading before configuring form. She creates installations, videos, and drawings to expose critical commentary and postulate. Disfiguration not only mimics her surrounding but submerges her sub-context in her context in which she discovers it. From formal painting to text-based works to installations, using whatever materials best suit the message, Kaufman speaks to the viewer by assessing society’s role in humanity’s progress.

Michelle Kaufman’s video installations were included in a group show in June 2012 titled Poor Quality: Inequality that took place at the Center for Advanced Hindsight in North Carolina, on view through the month of August. In September the artist presented a selection of new works on paper in a group show at the Yashar Gallery, located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Kaufman’s new photographic series Love Vignettes (2014) captures the emotion of love through the documentation of body postures exchanged by families and couples lounging at a public park.