Contemporary
Contemporary
Mingering Mike
The Genesis of a Dream: Mingering Mike’s Constructed Reality Mingering Mike, born in Washington, D.C., in 1950, wasn't simply an artist; he was the architect of his own elaborate and entirely self-contained universe. From roughly 1968 to 1977, this young man meticulously crafted a career as a soul singer and songwriter, producing over fifty “albums” – each a painstakingly assembled cardboard record complete with intricate gatefolds, handwritten liner notes, and simulated vinyl grooves. This wasn’t mere performance art; it was the embodiment of a teenage fantasy, a deeply personal project bor…
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works mapped
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subjects
An Interactive Constellation
The Subject Atlas
A chart of Mingering Mike's corpus mapped not by date but by subject. Spokes are what they painted; rings are when; and the threads between stars reveal the patrons and places that secretly connect them.
Focus a Subject
Trace a Context
Spokes — Subject
Each arm of the atlas gathers works by what they depict: portraits, sacred scenes, mythologies, and the scientific studies. Click a spoke to swing that cluster to the top.
Rings — Career Period
Distance from the center marks time. The innermost ring is the earliest period; the outermost, the final years. Style matures as you move outward.
Threads — Shared Context
Coloured lines link works bound by the same patron, commission, or theme. Trace a context to watch related clusters light up across subjects.