Born in 1941 Michael Peter Cain is an American artist who has worked in writing, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and environmental installation. Cain studied poetry at Harvard and painting at Yale before co-founding Pulsa, a collaborative group that created public installation art, primarily working with light, sound and other sensory phenomena from 1967-1973. A unifying theme of much of his work is the layering of infinite abstract all-over patterns. His work emerged in many periods including:
Poems
Early drawings, paintings and sculptures.
A progressive series of paintings that transformed figurative images into non-objective grids.
Acrylic grid paintings on paper
Grid paintings on layered vinyl
All over field drawings on paper and canvas.
Cast Acrylic relief paintings
Polychrome routed wood reliefs and sculptures
Corrugated board and polyester sculptures
Wax modeled cast metal sculptures
Sculptural assemblages of found objects
Cast metal sculptures with appropriated ornamental surfaces Hammered Sheet metal sculptures made in collaboration with traditional repoussé artisans in India.
Cast Metal sculptures made out of texts
2 Major Public Sculptures, one kinetic work made from composites, 18’ x 24’ x 24,’ 1997, and the other made from metal, 76” x 48” x 48,” 2023 on monumental pedestal.
Cain exhibited his work at Galleries and Museums all over the United states, as well as in Paris, London New Delhi and Varanasi from 1968-2022. Cain’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Des Moines Art Center. Cain received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Fulbright Foundation, American Institute for American Studies and the Iowa Arts Council.
Here is a description Cain wrote of himself:
I am an artist, writer, monologist, photographer, curator, book addict, art collector, gardener, devotee of the sublime in nature, meditator, and lover of reality.
As an empath artist and art lover, my destinations over a lifetime have included beautiful places in nature, sacred sites and contemporary art events around the world. I have been addicted to creating and re-enacting artworks of all sorts throughout my life.
I engage daily in meditative and anti-aging practices as part of my lifelong search for creative inspiration, expanded awareness and aesthetic rapture.
Receding milestones include Harvard (AB, English, ’63 (writing poetry), Yale (BFA, MFA, Painting, 67), co-founder of Pulsa (1967-1973 - search The Pulsa Group at http://archive.org under Internet Archive), co-author of the New York Times bestselling book, TM, emeritus founding art professor at Maharishi University, and internationally exhibited sculptor. Ongoing projects include liquidating three family art estates and completing and exhibiting the large body of collaborative sculptures begun in India.
Delighted to be overwhelmed by these projects, I am the child of two artists, former husband of my sublime painter, and father of two wonderful daughters now in their mid 40’s and the grandfather of four for whom I hope humanity’s collective awakening can somehow sustain our beautiful world. I am an artist, writer, monologist, photographer, curator, book addict, art collector, former entheogen advocate, gardener, devotee of the sublime in nature, meditator, and lover of reality. An inveterate traveller, I thrive on the expansion of perception that comes from inner and outer scene change. I delight in being ravished by natural-cultural spiritual encounters, most especially the sublime in nature, certain books, works of art, concerts, dance, theater, performance art, good indie movies, the lives of saints, and the fellowship of awakened people. An extreme culture vulture, studio addict, world traveler and spiritual seeker, I am wildly open minded.