Michael Dweck is an award-winning American filmmaker and contemporary visual artist. Best recognized for his evocative narrative photography, Dweck artistically investigates the on-going struggles between identity and adaptation found within endangered societal enclaves. Dweck's works have been featured in solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide, and are part of prestigious international art collections, including the archive of the Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where two of his long-form television pieces reside.
In his first feature-length film, "The Last Race" (Sundance US Documentary Competition 2018), Dweck extended his exploratory repertoire by combining observational documentary, stylized imagery, and a symphonic merging of motion and sound. Experimenting with both form and subject matter, Dweck highlights the mysterious beauty and exuberant passion shared by the last custodians of a disappearing tradition. Aside from creating an artistic appraisal of class and American identity, Dweck’s film allegorizes the broader, global epidemic wherein handmade objects and ritualistic traditions face extinction at the hands of mass conglomerate takeover.
Dweck’s other notable series of works include: The End: Montauk, N.Y., (2004), a paradisiacal photographic portrait of the famed fishing community and the beautiful denizens who comprise its surfing subculture; Mermaids, (2009), an impressionistic underwater dreamscape populated by storied “river children” in rural Florida; and Habana Libre, (2010), a prophetic narrative that contrasts the privileged lifestyles of Cuba’s creative class with the crumbling backdrop of a “classless” society. With this latter body of work, exhibited at the Fototeca Museum in Cuba, Dweck became the first living American artist to have a solo museum exhibition in the country. Dweck’s latest project, Blunderbust, explores the multifarious angles of a small-stakes stock car racetrack through an ambitious mélange of sculpture, installation, abstract painting, photography, video art, and film.
Dweck holds a degree in Fine Art from the Pratt Institute in New York. During his earlier career as a highly regarded creative director, Dweck received over forty international awards, including the coveted Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. Michael Dweck currently lives in New York City.
