Michael Paul Britto

Michael Paul Britto (born 1968) is a New York contemporary artist who explores the consequences of racial inequality through photography, video, collage, sculpture and performance. Britto shines a light on important racial issues using contemporary art. His work has been exhibited predominantly in New York, but also internationally, with exhibitions in Spain, Poland, and England. In 2004, he won the Individual Artist grant from New York State Council of The Arts, and in 2005, he was awarded the Media Arts Fellowship Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Early life and education Britto was born in Brooklyn and has remained in New York throughout his life. His work is influenced by his experiences growing up and his experiences living as person of color in New York City.

Career Britto strives to create art that is both politically and culturally aware in order to make statements and spark conversations. "Much of my work is about being a person of color in America, and the misconceptions and assumptions that go along with that. My art allows me to make people more politically and culturally aware, by using the customary as metaphor."

Britto's work is based on what he observes on the street every day. After being stopped and frisked in Chelsea, New York, while viewing art in a gallery, Britto created a performance piece called The Suspect Wore, 2012. He created a runway of people in front of a high end clothing store in the meatpacking district wearing the clothes that they had on when they had been stopped and frisked. Britto created another art piece about stop and frisk called The Brown Man Experience: In Our Own Words, 2014, where he photographed men who had been stopped and frisked and had them write something about themselves on a dry erase board. Michael Britto's work has been featured in multiple exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, and selected works can be seen in permanent collections at The Studio Museum, Rush Arts Collection, and Taller Boricua in New York. He currently teaches at an alternative high school for young adults, who are under-credited on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and as well teaches as a media teacher at the Downtown Community Television Center’s Pro-TV youth program.

Video Britto's video work is often humorous while also addressing serious issues in African American history. In 2005, The Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri displayed two of Britto's video pieces that explore black history in pop culture. The first piece is titled Dirrrty Harriet Tubman, 2005, which creates an action-hero movie trailer that imagines Harriet Tubman as a young, strong woman rather than a maternal figure as she is often portrayed. The second piece called I'm A Slave 4 U, 2005 is a parody of the Britney Spears' song of the same title. Britto's music video casts all black actors in slave costumes with choreography that is inspired by "common slave practices."

Collage Britto's collages have also gained interest because of his ability to combine very familiar and "haunting images" to create "jarring formations." “Rush20: 1995-2015” Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, Brooklyn, New York November 15- December 20, 2015 “Something in the Way of Things” Alijra, a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, New Jersey, September 24 - December 19, 2015 “Cut N Mix: Contemporary Collage” El Museo Del Barrio, New York, New York July 22 - December 12, 2015 Uncomfortable Truths – The Shadow Of Slave Trading On Contemporary Art & Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London 2007 Black Alphabet – Contexts of Contemporary African American Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland 2006 The Art Palace Madrid, Madrid, Spain 2004