Michael Eble: Mod Sampling

Michael Eble creates colorful abstract works that merge collage, acrylic, and drawn elements to explore the complex legacy of abstraction through modernist visual languages. Incorporating found materials and sourced elements, his work employs fragmentation, layering, and familiar imagery to invite multiple interpretations from the viewer.

During a solo residency at the Kolaj Institute, the Lafayette-based artist turned his attention to the architecture of mid-century New Orleans, particularly the style known as regional modernism. This design approach combines modernist principles including simplicity, geometry, and functionality within a cultural, environmental, and historical context. Eble’s research focused on iconic structures such as the International Rivergate Center and the Louisiana Superdome, landmarks of the postwar architectural boom that helped define New Orleans as an international city. He also uncovered and documented lesser-known buildings from this era, tracing their formal qualities and cultural resonance.

Drawing inspiration from these structures, Eble developed a new series of collages and paintings that layer geometric forms, textures, and color palettes evocative of the period. The architectural language of these buildings informs the shapes and forms within the work, grounding abstraction in a strong sense of place. His process of building up and sanding through collage, acrylic, and drawn elements echoes both the construction and the gradual weathering of these architectural landmarks. Eble’s works use abstraction to explore ideas of memory, place, and identity.

This body of work marks a shift in Eble’s practice toward architectural abstraction and cultural history. By examining how these regional landmarks endure, evolve, and remain embedded in collective memory, he invites viewers to consider the lasting impact of design on community, identity, and belonging.

Michael Eble was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He earned a BFA in painting from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Michael currently serves as the Assistant Dean for the UL College of the Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Michael’s artwork explores abstracted topography, prompting viewers to reflect on their own connections within their environments. His paintings and works on paper have been exhibited in numerous regional and national solo and group exhibitions, with recent shows in Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Michael has been awarded several grants and fellowships, including an Artspark Grant, Louisiana Project Grant, and an Advance Faculty Grant from UL Lafayette. He has also received multiple Imagine Fund Awards and Grant-in-Aid Awards from the University of Minnesota, a Residential Fellowship in 2008 from the Institute for Advanced Study, and additional grants and research funding from the McKnight Foundation, Lake Region Arts Council, Vermont Studio Center, Science Museum of Minnesota, and the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center. Michael Eble is currently represented by Cole Pratt Gallery in New Orleans, LA.