Michael Sitaras
Upcoming exhibition
Overview
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 2, 11am-2pm
Text written by Dr. Hugh M. Davies
Michael Sitaras’ life is a highly unusual combination of professional painter and Greek Orthodox priest. Born in Chios, Greece in 1954, the son and grandson of Greek Orthodox priests, Sitaras grew up in Fort Pierce, Florida, where as a teenager he was taken under the wing of distinguished painter A.E. “Bean” Backus, the “Dean of Florida Landscape painting,” who was mentor to the legendary African-American painters known as the “Florida Highwaymen.” Backus recognized Sitaras’ talent at an early age, particularly his uncanny ability to capture likeness in portraiture. Welcoming the young prodigy into his studio, Backus arranged commissions for him to paint portraits of bankers and judges while encouraging him also to paint landscapes and still lifes. Sitaras won a full scholarship to Syracuse University, spent his sophomore year (1974-5) at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, and completed his MFA at Louisiana State University in 1981. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City, supporting his studio practice by working at galleries and building major works for sculptors Dennis Oppenheim and Michael Heizer. For the next few years, Sitaras’ paintings were exhibited in one-person and group shows in various galleries and art museums, culminating in a solo exhibition at the distinguished Sander Gallery, as well as inclusion in the Aldrich Museum’s annual acquisition exhibition. Despite these successes, life in the studio was isolating, so Sitaras made the decision to attend Holy Cross Seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts, earning a MDiv. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1994 and pastored the Saint Luke Greek Orthodox Church in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
While ministering to his church, Sitaras continued to paint voraciously — making murals for the church and painting portraits of parishioners and landscapes. In 2012, he and his family moved to San Diego where he became pastor at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church on Manchester Avenue in Cardiff. His work was included in a 2013 group show at Quint Gallery, where he and I first met while I was director and CEO at MCA San Diego. I eagerly arranged a studio visit and have been a great supporter and believer in Michael’s work ever since. As a Francis Bacon scholar, I’ve been a keen follower of contemporary portraiture, including the work of other British painters such as Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud. Michael shares an interest in these artists and like them, he possesses the facility and technique to capture likeness in portraiture that goes beyond superficial likeness to arrive at the essence of his subjects. His facility with oil paint — both with brush and palette knife — is hard-won and rare, resulting in memorably accomplished paintings of people, landscape and still lifes. The joy he derives from his pictures is palpable.
Since my retirement in 2018 after 35 years at the MCA, Michael and I have enjoyed the friendship of ten other male colleagues at a monthly lunch that we dubbed “Symposium” (this looked more distinguished than “lunch” on our respective calendars). These men have all contributed greatly to the cultural life and growth of many institutions in San Diego over the past several decades, in museums, galleries and universities as artists, architects, professors, curators and directors at MCASD, SDMA, the Timken, at UCSD, USD, as well as St. James Church, La Jolla, and the Greek Church, Cardiff.
During Covid, Michael would come to our house on Monday mornings to paint me, my wife, Faye Hunter, and our poodles from a safe distance. We all enjoyed each other’s good company and, much like our Symposium, pursued wide-ranging conversations on any number of subjects, often focusing on art and art history. A year or so ago, I asked Michael if he’d ever painted a group portrait of more than the six members of his family. Hearing “no” I blithely suggested that he might rival Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” by making a group portrait of our group of twelve Symposium friends. The year-long effort required three adjoined, subtly shaped canvases, each approximately 5’X3’ and in total over 9’ wide. The resulting picture is a triumph of composition of multiple figures in a complicated setting, informed by the flatness of Byzantine icons, the shifting space and multiple perspectives of subtle Cubism and Sitaras’ uncanny and god-given ability to animate human likeness. We all posed one morning in his garage studio as he moved us about like chess pieces until satisfied and he could photograph his idea for the final composition. We were then invited to a delicious lunch replete with celebratory wine toasts.
I’m deeply honored and grateful to my dear friend Mark Quint for the invitation to curate a selection of Sitaras’ paintings in his eponymous gallery, which will be on view during the month of November. It seems a poetic closure that I first met Michael a decade ago in a previous iteration of Mark’s gallery.
While ministering to his church, Sitaras continued to paint voraciously — making murals for the church and painting portraits of parishioners and landscapes. In 2012, he and his family moved to San Diego where he became pastor at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church on Manchester Avenue in Cardiff. His work was included in a 2013 group show at Quint Gallery, where he and I first met while I was director and CEO at MCA San Diego. I eagerly arranged a studio visit and have been a great supporter and believer in Michael’s work ever since. As a Francis Bacon scholar, I’ve been a keen follower of contemporary portraiture, including the work of other British painters such as Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud. Michael shares an interest in these artists and like them, he possesses the facility and technique to capture likeness in portraiture that goes beyond superficial likeness to arrive at the essence of his subjects. His facility with oil paint — both with brush and palette knife — is hard-won and rare, resulting in memorably accomplished paintings of people, landscape and still lifes. The joy he derives from his pictures is palpable.
Since my retirement in 2018 after 35 years at the MCA, Michael and I have enjoyed the friendship of ten other male colleagues at a monthly lunch that we dubbed “Symposium” (this looked more distinguished than “lunch” on our respective calendars). These men have all contributed greatly to the cultural life and growth of many institutions in San Diego over the past several decades, in museums, galleries and universities as artists, architects, professors, curators and directors at MCASD, SDMA, the Timken, at UCSD, USD, as well as St. James Church, La Jolla, and the Greek Church, Cardiff.
During Covid, Michael would come to our house on Monday mornings to paint me, my wife, Faye Hunter, and our poodles from a safe distance. We all enjoyed each other’s good company and, much like our Symposium, pursued wide-ranging conversations on any number of subjects, often focusing on art and art history. A year or so ago, I asked Michael if he’d ever painted a group portrait of more than the six members of his family. Hearing “no” I blithely suggested that he might rival Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” by making a group portrait of our group of twelve Symposium friends. The year-long effort required three adjoined, subtly shaped canvases, each approximately 5’X3’ and in total over 9’ wide. The resulting picture is a triumph of composition of multiple figures in a complicated setting, informed by the flatness of Byzantine icons, the shifting space and multiple perspectives of subtle Cubism and Sitaras’ uncanny and god-given ability to animate human likeness. We all posed one morning in his garage studio as he moved us about like chess pieces until satisfied and he could photograph his idea for the final composition. We were then invited to a delicious lunch replete with celebratory wine toasts.
I’m deeply honored and grateful to my dear friend Mark Quint for the invitation to curate a selection of Sitaras’ paintings in his eponymous gallery, which will be on view during the month of November. It seems a poetic closure that I first met Michael a decade ago in a previous iteration of Mark’s gallery.
Dr. Hugh M. Davies, Exhibition Curator
Director Emeritus
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego