Artwork copyright Michael Dal Cerro. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The Expanding Universe, 1996

Michael Dal Cerro
American (born 1953)

Location: Prairie High School, Vancouver

About the Artwork

The Expanding Universe is a graphically dynamic and colorful woodblock print by artist Michael Dal Cerro. The composition combines recognizable figures, images, and words that reference advertisements and commercial products. Dal Cerro states, "these scraps of visual information, colors and patterning, for all their complexity, have a very specific intuitive relationship to each other," and notes that this work seeks to explore "the emotional impact of imagery intended to attract attention or sell something."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Battle Ground Public Schools.

About the Artist

New Jersey-based artist Michael Dal Cerro utilizes painting, printmaking and digital media to create elaborately imagined compositions. Interested in the invention of forms and visual language, his works play with conventional perspective and figuration. Dal Cerro lived in Seattle, Washington between 1988 and 1993. Many of his artworks from that period depict imagery of the Pacific Northwest. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Northern Illinois University in 1975.