Artwork
Biography
A three term City Councillor in Guelph Ontario; Mike Salisbury combines politics and pop‐art with street art installations that engage his audience in the social issues of our time. Salisbury uses abandoned payphones as a metaphor for connection and disconnection. His street art invites interaction, something he calls anonymous collaboration. “The most exciting aspect is how people build upon my art as part of their own artistic expression. This is particularly true in Instagram Art Galleries like Graffiti Alley in Toronto.” Salisbury’s recent work includes sculpture which juxtaposes a living tree within a full‐size metal and glass street corner payphone, the kind Clark Kent would use to change into his famous alter ego before launching into the sky to save the world. Today very few of these public icons of mid‐century architecture remain and those that do stand in a slow melancholy decline. The juxtaposition of an outdated urban artifact surrounding the life force of a tree leaves the viewer to contemplate… is nature protected, or imprisoned? Is this a triumph for the environment, or a technological abasement? Playful nostalgia or a worrisome premonition? Mike Salisbury studied at the Toronto School of Art in the late 80’s and was founder of the Toronto Student Art Gallery in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto. A graduate of University of Guelph School of Landscape Architecture, he specialized in the design of children’s playscapes for almost 20 years before becoming a full time as an artist. Mike has been invited to exhibit at group shows, solo exhibitions as well as several juried art exhibitions. He has been awarded grants from the Ontario Arts Council. Salisbury’s site‐specific commissions and two‐dimensional artworks are held in private collections.
