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Autopsies reveal cause of death of US lawyer and wife onboard Mike Lynch’s superyacht

Seven lives were lost when the the yacht bayesian, belonging to british tech tycoon mike lynch, capsized off the coast of sicily, article bookmarked.

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Autopsies have been carried out on a couple who drowned on Mike Lynch’s superyacht when it sank off the coast of Sicily last month.

Seven lives were lost when the British-flagged boat, called the Bayesian, went down in a freak storm while anchored near the Sicilian capital of Palermo on 19 August.

British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 19-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch were among those who died, while his wife, Angela Bacares, survived with 14 others.

On Monday, Italian authorities said the first post-mortem examinations on the victims had been carried out on US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda . The results confirmed that the pair had drowned.

Morvillo was a partner at Clifford Chance, a white-collar law firm. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor who investigated the September 11 terror attacks, according to the New York Post .

Post-mortem examinations are planned on Wednesday on the bodies of Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary, and his wife Judy.

They are also due to take place for the remaining three victims, Mr Lynch, who had organised the yacht trip to celebrate a recent legal victory, his daughter Hannah and the yacht’s cook, Recaldo Thomas.

Mr Morvillo was one of Mr Lynch’s US lawyers in a fraud case involving the sale in 2011 of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in an £8.3 billion deal that quickly turned sour over allegations Mr Lynch had cooked the books to overvalue Autonomy. He was acquitted in June.

What we know so far

The British-flagged  vessel   was carrying 12  passengers  and 10 members of crew when it sank at around 5am local time near Palermo.

The 56-metre (184ft) luxury yacht sank during what appears to have been a sudden downburst. These are powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out quickly once they hit the ground. The wreckage now sitting at a depth of 50m below the surface of the sea.

Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 people including Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares were rescued after escaping on a lifeboat.

Tributes were paid to those who died , with Hannah’s sister calling her “the most amazing, supportive and joyful sister and best friend to me”. She had been due to start studying English at Oxford University in October.

Mr Lynch founded the software giant Autonomy in 1996 and  sat on the board of a number of prestigious institutions .

His close friend and colleague Andrew Kanter said: “Mike was the most brilliant mind and caring person I have ever known. Over nearly a quarter century I had the privilege of working beside someone unrivalled in their understanding of technology and business.

“There is simply no other UK technology entrepreneur of our generation who has had such an impact on so many people.”

What happens now?

Prosecutors are investigating the captain , New Zealander James Cutfield, and two crew members for possible responsibility in connection with the sinking.

Mr Cutfield is under investigation for possible manslaughter and culpable shipwreck charges. Tim Parker Eaton — the engineer who was in charge of securing the yacht’s engine room — and sailor Matthew Griffith — who was on watch duty on the night of the disaster — are now under investigation for the same possible charges, their lawyer said.

Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is heading the investigation, has said his team will consider each possible element of responsibility including those of the captain, the crew, individuals in charge of supervision and the yacht’s manufacturer.

Investigators are focusing on how a sailing vessel deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed. They added raising the Bayesian and examining the yacht for evidence would provide key elements to the investigation.

Maritime director of western Sicily, Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda of the coastguard, could not confirm how long it would take to retrieve the shipwreck of the sunken yacht, adding recovering the fuel tanks was a “priority for us because it has environmental knock-on effects”.

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Autopsies Show Four on Mike Lynch’s Yacht ‘Dry Drowned’

The autopsies for four of the passengers aboard the ‘Bayesian’ show they “dry drowned” after being stuck in an air pocket.

Owen Lavine

Breaking News Intern

LYNCH FAMILY HANDOUT via Reuters

Four of the dead passengers who went down with the 184-foot luxury yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily on August 19 during a storm likely ran out of oxygen while trapped in an air pocket in one of the cabins of on the submerged ship, according to autopsies released Wednesday.

Medical Examiners at the Forensic Medicine Institute of the Palermo Polyclinic hospital stated that Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda Morvillo, Morgan Stanley executive Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Anne Bloomer died from “atypical drowning.” This means that they did not directly die from water intake as would a person drowning in water, or underwater; rather, could not get more oxygen.

The four joined Lynch on the yacht as a part of his victory celebrations after being acquitted of fraud charges in Hewlett Packard’s case against him and were found in the cabin along with Lynch.

Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano

Alessandro Fucarini/Getty Images

Autopsies for Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, are expected to be carried out on Friday, according to CNN . The two were discovered in separate cabins—Hannah discovered alone—prosecutors revealed to reporters on August 24.

An autopsy for chef Recaldo Thomas, whose body was discovered off the ship, has not happened yet due to issues the Italian authorities have had reaching Thomas’ family in Antigua.

An Italian coastguard boat on the water on the fifth day of the search and recovery operation after the luxury yacht Bayesian sank.

Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images

Italian prosecutors are currently investigating the ship’s engineer Tim Parker Eaton, night watch, Matthew Griffith and captain James Cutfield for manslaughter.

All three of the men have left Italy as the investigation continues, according to CNN.

HP is currently pursuing $4 billion from Lynch’s estate after an English court ruled in 2022 that he had inflated the value of his company, Autonomy, before selling it to the technology giant.

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Mike Lynch’s Friend Shares What Life Was Like Onboard Yacht Before It Sank: 'Truly Luxurious Cabins'

"He was really happy and wanted to start a new life," Corrado Broli shared of Lynch, who he worked with for 25 years

PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Mike Lynch 's friend and former colleague has detailed what life was like onboard the luxury Bayesian yacht before it sank off the coast of Sicily last month.

In an interview with the Italian current affairs show Quarta Repubblica that aired on Monday, Sept. 2, Corrado Broli opened up about his relationship with the tech entrepreneur — who was found dead along with six others after the 183-foot yacht sank on Aug. 19 — and his time on the luxury vessel.

"I had been on this boat several times, it was a really fantastic boat, I have to say," Broli, who worked with Lynch for 25 years, told the outlet.

"I have never met this captain, I had met the previous one though. It was a boat with truly luxurious cabins," Broli said, before noting its special functions.

"Perini boats are famous for a series of automatisms they have. You can practically control them directly through a control unit, and everything is done automatically," he claimed, adding, "... And the portholes were sealed so you cannot open them."

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty

Broli, who worked at Lynch’s software companies Autonomy and Darktrace until 2022 after meeting him in 1999, went on to talk about the pair's relationship over the years.

"I knew him well, and obviously his wife and family. It was a relationship that extended beyond a professional relationship, it was also a friendship," he said.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, also died in the tragedy, though his wife, Angela Bacares, survived and was rescued along with 14 others onboard.

Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby boat at the time, told PEOPLE that Bacares did not want to leave the scene until her husband and daughter were found. Their bodies were later recovered from the sunken vessel.

Broli, who was not on the yacht during the incident, suspects that Bacares was "in the cabin with Mike, and Mike told her, 'You go, save yourself and I will go and look for Hannah.' He knew she was in the cabin near to them." He claims that since the incident, Bacares "does not speak or communicate with anyone, we have only exchanged a message."

Broli added that Lynch was using the trip as a celebration with colleagues and friends after he had "undergone a very long trial, out of which he had emerged fully acquitted."

"He was really happy and wanted to start a new life," Broli said, adding that he will remember his friend as the "British Bill Gates" and a "very happy person."

Lynch went to trial and was acquitted after he was accused of financial fraud in connection to the sale of Autonomy — a business software company he founded — to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and a  source previously told PEOPLE  the group had traveled to the Aeolian Islands to celebrate the win.

The captain of the Bayesian , James Cutfield, is currently under investigation for the incident and has been questioned several times by Italian authorities, a source close to the investigation previously told PEOPLE. Italian authorities launched a manslaughter and negligent shipwreck investigation in connection with the sinking, Ambrogio Cartosio, the chief prosecutor of Termini Imerese, announced last month.

On the day of the incident, Italian news agency ANSA reported that the vessel, which was carrying 22 people, was anchored when a tornado formed over the water , known as a waterspout, striking the yacht before it lost its balance and sank.

Italian coast guard officials have said there was a "violent storm" before the Bayesian went into the water.

ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty

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Recalling the design of the ship, Broli speculated that "the walkway out of the cabins is brief. There is a small set of steps that takes you up to the bridge, it's short because it is just seven to eight steps. Something abnormal must have happened beyond the weather conditions.”

However, he added that he does not "think there is a conspiracy here," as many have drawn their own suspicions about the cause of the sinking ship.

Many details  of why the yacht went into the water so quickly  remain unclear.

Along with Lynch and his daughter, the tragic incident claimed the lives of several high-profile individuals. They have been identified by authorities as the yacht's chef Recaldo Thomas, prominent New York attorney Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda ; and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy .

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Mike Lynch ‘likely died of suffocation’ after running out of oxygen on sunken yacht

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is likely to have died of suffocation after running out of oxygen, according to a source close to the investigation.

They cited initial examinations carried out on Saturday after the businessman’s body was recovered from the family yacht that sank off Sicily ’s coast last month during a freak weather incident.

Mr Lynch died alongside his 18-year-old daughter, the boat’s chef and four others , who were onboard the British-flagged superyacht Bayesian to celebrate his recent acquittal after a lengthy decade-long legal battle.

Initial results of examinations of Hannah Lynch’s body on Saturday were inconclusive, the source told the Reuters news agency.

They only ruled out any traumas or wounds as the cause of death, leaving open the possibility she ran out of oxygen or drowned.

Preliminary results from autopsies on four other victims – Morgan Stanley international chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda – indicated suffocation as the likely cause of death, judicial sources said.

Further forensic tests have been ordered of all the victims, with results expected in the coming weeks.

Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch’s wife, survived the sinking while three crew members, including the captain, are under investigation as part of the probe into the cause of the sinking.

The bodies of the dead, except the cook, were found in cabins on the left-hand side of the 56m vessel, where the trapped passengers may have tried to search for remaining bubbles of air, the head of Palermo’s Fire Brigade said last month.

A large-scale search operation continued for five days, with divers tackling challenging conditions with debris and furniture blocking the narrow passageways of the sunken yacht.

The incident has puzzled maritime experts, who said a vessel such as the Bayesian, built by high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm.

Following Mr Lynch’s death, tributes flooded in from across the tech industry, with his family issuing a statement to reflect their “unspeakable grief” at the loss of both him and Hannah.

David Tabizel, who co-founded software giant Autonomy with him in 1996, posted on X: “It looks like we’ve lost our dear Dr Mike Lynch. RIP. The world has lost a genius. His family have lost a giant of a man.”

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Superyacht sinks: Cause of death revealed for NYC lawyer and wife

Chris morvillo and wife neda are 1st autopsies completed following sinking of bayesian off sicily.

Yacht captain under investigation for manslaughter

Maritime lawyer Alex Perez joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the details of the case after a storm reportedly caused the superyacht to sink, killing seven on board.

A New York City lawyer and his wife, who were among the seven who died in the sinking of the Bayesian superyacht last month off the coast of Sicily, passed away as a result of drowning, autopsies have revealed. 

The causes of death for Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda were confirmed by coroners in Italy, as autopsies are planned Wednesday on the bodies of Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary, and his wife, Judy, according to The Associated Press. 

The Bayesian had 22 people on board – 12 passengers and 10 crew – when it capsized and sank within minutes of being hit by a predawn storm on Aug. 19. Civil protection officials said they believe the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, near the port of Porticello, where the yacht was anchored.  

Autopsies are pending for British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch – who had organized the yacht trip to celebrate a recent legal victory – as well as his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and the yacht’s cook, Recaldo Thomas. 

LUXURY YACHT CAPTAIN FACES MANSLAUGHTER INVESTIGATION AFTER DEATHS OF BRITISH TECH MOGUL, 6 OTHERS  

The Bayesian yacht seen in Gibraltar in 2021. (@dannywheelz/TMX)

Morvillo was one of Lynch’s U.S. lawyers in a fraud case involving the 2011 sale of search engine company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in an $11 billion deal that turned sour over allegations that Lynch had cooked the books to overvalue Autonomy, the AP reported. He was acquitted in June. 

YACHT MAKER SAYS ‘INDESCRIBABLE’ CREW ERRORS LED TO FATAL SICILY SHIPWRECK

Neda Morvillo and Chris Morvillo are seen in New York City in 2018. Autopsies say the couple drowned after the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of southern Italy last month. (Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Prosecutors also reportedly are investigating the captain and two crew members for possible responsibility in connection with the sinking . Fifteen people, including Lynch's wife, were rescued from the 184-foot British-flagged luxury yacht. 

The CEO of a manufacturing company responsible for building the yacht has blamed a series of "indescribable, unreasonable errors" by the crew for the vessel’s demise. 

Italian firefighter divers work at the site where the Bayesian sank in Porticello, Sicily, southern Italy, on Aug. 22. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

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Giovanni Costantino told Reuters that the yacht’s crew made an "incredible mistake" of not being ready for the storm, which was included in shipping forecasts. The passengers should have been called out of their cabins and ordered to assemble at a safety point as the ship was preparing for the storm by taking measures such as pulling up the anchor, the CEO said. 

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan, Greg Wehner and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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MICHAEL ASHKIN

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Michael Ashkin

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Michael Ashkin is an artist working in photography, sculpture, and painting. His work has been shown at the Whitney Biennial, Greater New York, Documenta 11, Vienna Secession, MUDAM in Luxembourg, Artsonje Center in Seoul, and Kolumba in Köln. Ashkin has published five photobooks: Garden State (Workroom G in 2000), Long Branch (A-Jump Books in 2014), Horizont (TIS Books in 2018), were it not for (Fw:Books in 2019), and There will be two of you (Fw:Books in 2023). He has been awarded two Pollock–Krasner Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has taught at Cornell University since 2006.

Ashkin_CV.pdf

1955-67 Born and lives in Bernardsville, NJ

1967-73 Lives in Rumson, NJ

1973-77 The University of Pennsylvania, Near Eastern Languages, BA

1977 Bourguiba Institute, Tunis, Tunisia

1977-1980 Columbia University, Middle East Languages and Cultures, MA

1978 Ferdowsi University, Mashad, Iran

1979-1981 Lecturer at Brooklyn College, Arabic Language

1981-1984 Computer coding at Insurance Services Office, NYC

1984-89 Mortgage-backed securities at Salomon Brothers and Dean Witter, NYC

1989-1993 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Painting/Drawing, Post-Bacc, MFA

1994-2006 Lives and works Brooklyn, NY

1999 Marries Leslie Brack

2003 Birth of daughter, Juliet

2003-2006 Lecturer at Pratt Institute, Tyler School of Art, SUNY Purchase, SUNY Albany, ICP

2006 Moves to Ithaca, NY

2006-2024  Professor at Cornell University, Department of Art

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024  Foyer LA, Los Angeles

2023 Bibliowicz Gallery, Cornell University 

2021 Incident Report at Flow Chart Foundation, Hudson, NY

2020 Kaktos Project, Athens, Greece

2018 Bibliowicz Gallery, Cornell Unversity

2016 Cathouse Proper, Brooklyn

2013 Milstein Hall Gallery, Cornell University

2010 Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University

Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, North Carolina

2009 Secession, Vienna, Austria

SculptureCenter, New York

2005 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

2002 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

Galerie Otto Schweins, Cologne

Emily Tsingou Gallery, London

2000 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

1999 Emily Tsingou Gallery, London

Galerie Jousse Seguin, Paris

1998 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

1997 Galerie Jousse Seguin, Paris

1996 Feigen, Incorporated, Chicago

Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York

1994 Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago

1992 Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago

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2023 The Milton and Sheila Fine Collection, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA

Open Season IV, Standard Art, Ithaca, NY

Local Visions II, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, DeKalb, Illinois

Good Object/Bad Object, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Farm + Auto, Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Art, Trumansburg, NY

2022 Fistivali Futugrafia Mascarone, Bastilicaccia, Corsica

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What Ends up in a Book, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY

2020 The Best Dutch Book Designs 2019, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Bookkeeping, Tjaden Gallery, Cornell University

2019 La Fotografia un Cantiere Aperto, Artphilein Library, Lugano, Switzerland

Undercurrents, Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH

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Static Activity, FoyerLA, Los Angeles

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Cornell Art Faculty Exhibition, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY

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2017 Land and Time, Momenta Art at Atlas Industries, Newburgh, NY

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Social Photography V, Carriage Trade, New York, NY

Leaving Home, Cathouse Funeral, Beacon, NY

2016 Recap: thirty years of Momenta Art, Momenta Art, New York, NY

Cathouse Retrospective, Chemistry Creative, Brooklyn, NY

2015 City Lives, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York, NY

Archipelago, Helmuth Projects, San Diego, CA

Der Rote Faden, Kolumba, Museum of Archdiocese Cologne, Germany

The City: Works from the Collection, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY

From the Ruins, 601 Artspace, New York, NY

William Carlos Willam Blake, Experimental Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

2014 The Photographer’s Playspace, Aperture Gallery, NY, NY

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Open Season, Standard Art, Ithaca, NY

Memory Palace, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH

20-Year Anniversary Show, Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

Annie Lewandowski and Tim Feeney, Mills College, Oakland, CA

What Models Can Do, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany

Hunt, Cathouse Funeral, Brooklyn, NY

Swatches, Argos, Ithaca, NY

EF2, Active Space, Brooklyn, NY

For the Love of Agnes and Barney, Cathouse Funeral, Brooklyn, NY

Caspar David Frederic Church, Experimental Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Pyramid Scheme, Brooklyn, NY

Beyond Earth Art, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Shrink It Pink It, Cathouse Funeral, Brooklyn, NY

2013 Social Photography III, Carriage Trade, New York, NY

Depot/Centralia/Tiber, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY

Complimenta (2), Enfield, NY

A More Perfect Day: MUDAM collection, Artsonje Center, Seoul, Korea

2012 Le fond de l'air effraie’, Bienalle de Belleville 2, Paris Complimenta (1), Enfield, NY 2011 I’ve Dreamt About, Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg

Here, with Tim Feeney and Annie Lewandowski, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Twin Twin Postcard Edition, Pierogi, Brooklyn, NY

Pitshow, The Commons West, Ithaca, NY

Text/Works, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany

Focus: Earth and Fire, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado

2010 Second World Congress of Free Artists, Aarhus, Aarhus Kunstbygning, Denmark

The Other End of the Line, Chelsea Highline, New York

Ville de Paris – Art Contemporain, FMAC, FIAC, Paris

11. Triennale der Kleinplastik Fellbach, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

Malas Calles, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain

Urban Miracles, Gallery at the Remise Bludenz, Austria

2009 Twin Twin III, Artists’ Edition, Big and Small/Casual Space, Long Island City, NY

Utopics, 11th Swiss Sculpture Exhibition, Biel, Switzerland

Market Forces, Galerie Erna Hecey, Brussels, Belgium

Space Available, Ithaca, NY

2008 Market Forces, Carriage Trade, New York

2007 10 Years, Emily Tsingou Gallery, London

Critical Art, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Grow Your Own, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

2006 Weak Foundations, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY

Firstclass: Landscape,” laMobil, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our Town, HUT, Hudson, NY

Dark Places, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA

2005 We Could Have Invited Everyone, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

Out of Place, UBS, New York, NY

Trade, White Columns, New York

Think Small, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL

2004 Think Small, Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery, Chicago, IL

2003 The Power of Wings, The Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC

2000 Watery, Domestic, Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL

View Finder, Arnolfini, Bristol, England

Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany

Model World, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CN

2001 Kidsart, Clifford Smith Gallery, Boston, MA

Lateral Thinking, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA

Picqued Land, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA

2000 Gallery Patrick Seguin, Paris

From a Distance: Landscape in Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

Desert and Transport, Kunsthalle zu Kiel and Museum der Bildenden Kunst, Leipzig, Germany

Human/Nature, Caren Golden Gallery, NY

On the Horizon: Landscape at the Millenium, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ

Sites Around the City: Art and Environment, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ

Greater New York, P.S.1, NY

Thirtieth Anniversary Benefit Silent Auction, White Columns, New York

The End, Exit Art, New York

Berardo Collection, Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon, Portugal

Small World: Dioramas in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA

1999 Construction Zones, California State University at Fullerton

Story, A/C Project Room, New York

Modes of Art, Düsseldorf Kunstverein, Düsseldorf, Germany

Landworks Studio, Inc., Salem, MA

Surroundings: Responses to the American Landscape, San Jose Museum of Art, CA

Contemporary Collectors XIV, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

Souvenirs/Documents: 20 Years, PS 122 Gallery, New York

Sliding Scale, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC

1998 Encyclopedia, 1999, Turner & Runyon, Dallas, TX

Time after Time, Emily Tsingou Gallery, London

Young Amercians 2, The Saatchi Gallery, London

Where: Allegories of Site in Contemporary Art, The Whitney Museum, Stamford, CN

No is Yes, 4 Walls, Brooklyn, NY

1997 New Found Land Scape, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

24 Seven, Galerie Klaus Peter Goebel, Stuttgart, Germany

Elsewhere, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA

Land Marks, The John Weber Gallery, New York

Sculpture, James Graham & Sons, New York

Michael Ashkin, Andreas Gursky, Fischli and Weiss, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

Tableaux, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL

Tableaux, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX

Auto-portrait, Exit Art/The First World, New York

Across Lines, Rosenberg Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

1997 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Picturing, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Hold it now, hit it, 498 Court, Brooklyn, NY

Road Show '97, Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York

At the Edge of the Landscape, Galeria Estrany – de la Mota, Barcelona, Spain

Real World, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA

1996 The Lie of the Land, University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara

Currents in Contemporary Art, Christie's East, New York

Space, Mind, Place, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

Art Exchange Show, Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York

Site Specifics, The Carriage House Project Space, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY

PS 122 Gallery, New York

Wish You Were Here, Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York

MTV group show, The Green Room, MTV offices, New York

Group Hanging, Griffin Linton Contemporary Exhibitions, Costa Mesa, CA

Open Skies, SPAS Gallery, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY

Constructions, Michael Klein Gallery, New York

1995 Oooze, The Black & Herron Space, New York

Lookin' Good, Feelin' Good, 450 Broadway Gallery, New York

Pure Hinterland, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, IL

Chess and Checkers, Exit Art, New York

The National Security State, Steffany Martz Gallery, New York

Mini-Mundus, White Columns, New York

(page 13…), 450 Broadway Gallery, New York

Way Cool, Exit Art/The First World, New York

1994 Investigations into the Physical and Metaphorical Hole, Gallery 2, Chicago

U-Haul, in rental truck, New York

1993 Twelve No Trump, Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago

The New Pier Show Sculpture Garden, Cityfront Center, Chicago

1992 Ambient Spaces/Virtual Reality, Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago

Gallery 2, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Migration, curated by Gail Forrest, The Dome Room, Chicago

1991 October Group Show, World Tattoo Gallery, Chicago

Fall Group Show, The Dome Room, Chicago

Response to War, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago

Spring Group Show, The Dome Room, Chicago

1990 Five Different, 1800 North Clybourne, Chicago

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Published Artist Writings, Books, and Projects

There will be two of you , by Michael Ashkin, Fw:Books, 2023, ISBN-13: 978-90-833459-0-1.

Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What not to Photograph , edited by Jason Fulford, Aperture, 2021, ISBN: 978-1597114998.

Michael Ashkin: were if not for , with essay by Bernard Yenelouis, Kaktos Project, 2020,

ISBN: 978-618-84736-0-7.

Social Text , “Untitled (Proun),” No. 141, Duke University Press, 2019, ISSN: 0164-2472.

were it not for , by Michael Ashkin, Fw:Books, 2019, ISBN-13: 978-94-90119-80-5.

HORIZONT , by Michael Ashkin, TIS books, 2018, ISBN-13: 9781943146147.

Diacritics , “Photographs 2014—2016,” Volume 45, Number 4, 2017, ISSN 0330-7162.

Tammy , “Selections from Long Branch,” Issue 01, edited by Jason Lipeles and Grant Willing, ITI Press, Fall 2017, p. 23-47.

The Photographer’s Playbook , edited by Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern, Aperture Books,

ISBN-13: 978-1597112475.

Long Branch , by Michael Ashkin, A-Jump Books, 2014, ISBN 978-0-9905587-0-5. The Second World Congress of Free Artists. In Three Acts , “were it not for,” edited by Anthony Graves and Camel Collective, Aarhus Kunsthal, 2013, ISBN-13: 978-8792025272.

Space and Desire , “Long Branch,” Monitoring Scenography 03, edited by Thea Brejzek, Wolfgang Greisenegger, Lawrence Wallen, 2011, Zurcher Hochschule der Kunste, ISBN 978-3-906437-35-4.

The Cornell Journal of Architecture , “Resolution (Western Sahara),” No. 8: RE, edited by Caroline O’Donnell, 2011, ISBN-13: 978-0978506148.

(Long Branch) , by Michael Ashkin, Workroom G Editions, New York, 2010, ISBN 0-9677411-2-2.

Urban Miracles , “There will be two of you.,” edited by Barbara Holub and Paul Rajakovics, Remise Bludenz, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-3-902679-89-5.

Michael Ashkin , “Here,” edited by Annette Südbeck with essays by Anthony Graves and Elke Krasny, Secession, 2009, ISBN-13: 978-3902592279.

Untitled (Experience of Place) , “Untitled (Sayreville, NJ),” edited by Gregor Neuerer, Walther Koenig, 2004, ISBN 3-88375-792-6.

Garden State , by Michael Ashkin, Workroom G Editions, New York, 2000, ISBN 0-9677411-0-6.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Articles and Reviews

2024  Walsh, Connie: Michael Ashkin’s Meadowlands, zingmagazine.com/zingblog/

Knoblauch, Loring: “Josef Koudelka,” Collector Daily, April 24

Knoblauch, Loring: “Michael Ashkin: There will be two of you,” Collector Daily , March 27

Soto, Arturo: Photoeye, Book of the Week, https://blog.photoeye.com/2024/01/book-of-week-selected-by-arturo-soto.html , January 15

2023  Bosch, Janko: “Horizont,” https://zaptronic.nl/journal , January 12

2021 Doupas, Vassilios: The Art Newspaper , “Review 2020: The Best Reports,” January 1

2020 Konstantinidis, Giannis: LIFO Lightbox , “We will remember 10 art exhibitions from 2020,” December 7

Feuerhelm, Brad: Nearest Truth, “Michael Ashkin is an American artist.,” www.nearesttruth.com, November 20

Iamartino, Marissa: https://www.floatmagazine.us/book-library/books/michael-ashkin , “Michael Ashkin: were it not for,” May 6

Konstantinidis, Giannis: LIFO Lightbox , “Michael Ashkin: American Artist Traces the Footprint of Violence in Victoria Square,” February 17

Carbonell, Laura: Punto de Fuga , “Michael Ashkin: Were It Not For, FW:Books, 2019,” February 10

Markouli, Maria: It’s My Blender, mariamarkouli.com ,“Cactus Project,” February 8

Doupas, Vassilios: The Art Newspaper (Greek edition), “Michael Ashkin,” #248, p 21

Shinkle, Eugenie: www.1000wordsmag.com , “Michael Ashkin: were it not for,” Issue 32, Jan. 20

Swanson, Wayne: www.photobookjournal.com , “Michael Ashkin – were it not for,” January 15

Mack, Michael: British Journal of Photography , “Best of 2019: Michael Mack,” January 4

2019 Colberg, Jörg: Conscientious Photography Magazine , “Were it not for the Nightmares,” December 30

Feuerhelm, Brad: AmericanSuburbX.com , “2019: A Short Guide to White People & Their Photography Books,” December 27

Mack, Michael: photo-eye.com , “Michael Mack’s Favorite Book from 2019,” December

Bell, Adam: photo-eye.com , “Adam Bell’s Favorite Book from 2019,” December

Feuerhelm, Brad: Photobookstore Magazine ,

“Photobooks of 2019: Brad Feuerhelm,” December 6

Meeks, Raymond: Photobookstore Magazine ,

“Photobooks of 2019: Raymond Meeks,” December 10

Winship, Vanessa: Photobookstore Magazine ,

“Photobooks of 2019: Vanessa Winship,” December 17

Meeks, Raymond: deadbeatclubpress.com , “Books of Note 2019: Raymond Meeks, Dec. 13

Genitempo, Matthew: deadbeatclubpress.com , “Books of Note 2019: Matthew Genitempo,” December 25

Carpenter, Tim: deadbeatclubpress.com , “Books of Note 2019: Tim Carpenter,” December

Feuerhelm, Brad: deadbeatclubpress.com , “Books of Note 2019: Brad Feuerhelm,” Dec. 20

Shinkle, Eugenie: AmericanSuburbX.com , “Space, furrowed with abysses: Michael Ashkin’s Horizont ,” February

2016 Shinkle, Eugenie: Harvard Design Magazine, “Animal Eyes and Invisible Hunters,” Spring, No. 42, pp. 57-62 Shinkle, Eugenie: AmericanSuburbX.com , “Capitalism as a Bearer of the Uncanny: An Interview

with Michael Ashkin,” April 28, 2016

2015 Spector, Buzz: December, “Constructions and Industrial Paintings,” 26.2

Sholis, Brian: Frieze, “Books,” October, pp. 59-60

Coates, Jennifer: TimeOut New York, “From the Ruins. . . .,” July 2

McGlynn, Tom: The Brooklyn Rail, “From the Ruins. . . ,” June 3

Wolukau-Wanambwa, Stanley: The Great Leap Sideways ,

“Long Branch: A Conversation with Michael Ashkin,” April 10

Haeusslein, Allie: Photo-Eye , “Long Branch,” January 7

Ast, Michael: 10x10Photobooks (instagram), January 2

2014 Risch, Conor: PDN, November, “New Construction,” pp. 99 – 108.

2013 Koh, Daveen: Cornell Daily Sun, March 27, “What Holds Things Together”

Kwon, Mee-yoo: The Korea Times, April 15, “Coolness in Courtesy of Luxembourg”

EDNA: Issue 4, p. 158

2011 Blank , Jessica: blogs.colgate.edu , February 17

Butler, Sharon: twocoatsofpaint.com , “Small Pictures from Jimbo Blachly and Workroom G,”

April 21 (as Workroom G)

Lee, Diana Seo Hyung, Degree Critical: Mapping, “Michael Ashkin: Remembrance in Nine Parts,”

pp. 38 – 45

Lorgé, Marie-Anne, Le Jeudi , “Mudam Reve,” December 18

Miranda, Carolina: c-monster.net , “Photo Diary: Stuff artists are looking at,” April 11

(as Workroom G)

Miranda, Carolina: WNYC Gallerina , "This Week: Must-See Arts in the City /

WNYC's Arts: "Signs on the Road," March 24 (as Workroom G)

Schwartz, Wylie: Station923 , "Signs on the Road," March 6

Seele, Heidi: Rhein Neckar Zeitung , “Jonathan Meese lässt seinen ‘Lindwurm der Mact’ von der

Leine,” February 4

ARTCAT.com : "Top Pick," April 18–30 (as Workroom G)

Mannheimer Morgan : “Einmal Kunst und Zwei Texte,” February 3

2010 Cortés, José Miguel G.: EXIT Express , "Visiones urbanas alternativas," March

Khan, Baseera: Art21 Blog , "Remains to be seen," April 9

McAdams, Heather: The Cornell Daily Sun , "Multidimensional," April 27

Rajakovics, Paul: Derive , "Riker’s Heterotopos," with artist’s insert, January

Schwartz, Wylie: The Ithaca Post , "Invisible Cities," June 8

Singer, Alan: The Visual Artworker Blog , "Museum Building," April

Tsui, Karl: Association , “Exhibition at Secession,” Volume 4, Fall

Vogt, Rainer: Stuttgarter Nachrichten , "Wie das Universum Platz im Kopf findet," June 14

Watson, Jared: The Carolinian , "Artist Talk with Michael Ashkin," February 17

Ithaca Post , “Post Picks: 2010 in Review,” December 28

2009 Brody, David: artcritical.com , "Brooklyn DIY: A Story of Williamsburg Art Scene 1987-2007," March

Christoph, Horst: Profil , "Denkraum," November 16

Powhida, William: Brooklyn Rail , “How The New Musuem Committed Suicide with Banality,”

Thomas, Austin: drawingontheutopic.blogspot.com , “Michael Smith, Roxy Paine and Sculpture

Center,” May 11

c-m-l.org , "Centralia," September

Tensta Kunsthall Blog , "Vienna Art Week," December

2008 Lambert, Olympia: ArtCal, “Market Forces: Consuming Territories,” May 22

2007 Coulter-Smith, Graham: “Abstraction and Dehumanization,” artintelligence.wordpress.com , June 3

Schwendener, Martha: The New York Times , “Weak Foundations,” January 12

The New Yorker , “Weak Foundations,” January 22

"Grow Your Own," Palais de Tokyo/Magazine 02, p.73-79.

2005 Budick, Ariella: Newsday , “Exploring Urban Spaces: Mystery and Mean Beauty,” April 15

Cotter, Holland: The New York Times , “Trade,” February 25

Cotter, Holland: The New York Times , “Andrea Zittel, Michael Ashkin,” June 10

Faust, Lilly: TheNewYorkArtWorld.com , Summer

Smith, Roberta: The New York Times , “We Could Have Invited Everyone,” July 15

Wagner, James: jameswagner.com , “Michael Ashkin at Andrea Rosen,” June 2

2004 Gržiniċ, Marina: Camera Austria , “Untitled (Experience of Place),” No. 87/2004

2003 Berwick, Carly: The New York Times , "How One Artist Filled In the 'Holes' Known as New Jersey," April 27 Burton, Johanna: Time Out New York , "Michael Ashkin, 'Notes Toward Desolation'," January 9-16, p. 50

Grabner, Michelle: Bridge Online , "Watery, Domestic," Vol. 1 No. 4

Johnson, Ken: The New York Times , "Michael Ashkin: Notes Toward Desolation," January 10

Kerr, Merrily: Art on Paper , "Michael Ashkin: Notes Toward Desolation. Andrea Rosen Gallery,"

April, p. 61

Wilson, Michael: ArtForum , "Michael Ashkin," February, p. 142

The New Yorker , January 20, p.18

2002 Boecker, Susanne: Koelner Stadtanzeiger , "Schleichender Verfall," November 28

Boecker, Susanne: www.galerienkoeln.de , "Otto Schweins: Michael Ashkin," November/December

Büsser, Martin: JungeWelt , "Wo sind die Getränke?", July 17

Charlesworth, J. J.: Contemporary , “Bristol: Arnolfini Gallery,” September, pp. 76-77

Heartney, Eleanor: Art in America , “A 600-Hour Documenta,” September, pp. 86-95

Herbert, Martin: Art Monthly , “View Finder,” September, pp. 39-41

Israel, Nico: Artforum.com , “'Doing’Documenta in a Day,” June

Koegel, Alice: StadtRevue, "Michael Ashkins neue Fotoserien," December

Lafuente, Pablo, ArtReview , “Product of Place,” September

Robinson, Walter: Artnet , “Monster Mash,” July

Sinha, Gayatari: The Hindu , "Diatribe or art?," September 1

2001 McQuaidd, Cate: The Boston Globe , “Art of Absence,” April 5

Restorff, Jörg: Künstzeitung , “Wüst, Leipzig, ‘Desert und Transit,’” January

Rian, Jeff: Purple , “Scenic New Jersey,” Spring (interview)

Ullrich, Annette: Kreuzer , “Das Abenteur Ruft,” January, p. 50

2000 Bischoff, Dan: Sunday Star-Ledger , “Worlds of wonder: Rethinking the modern landscape,”

April 23, section 4, pp. 1–2

Boodro, Mike: Vogue , “Worlds Preserved,” March, p. 352

Coughlin, M.: Art New England , “Institute of Contmporary Art/Boston: from a distance: approaching

landscape,” Vol. 21, 6, p.54

Ganis, William: “Greater New York” catalogue, “Michael Phelan; Clara Williams; Jane Benson; Mike O’shea; Michael Ashkin”

Cotter, Holland: The New York Times , February 25, p. E41

Exley, Roy: Flash Art , “Michael Ashkin,” January–February, pp. 188-119

Hellmich, Sigrun: SZ, “Ästhetische Vollkost,” March 12

Kliner, Dion: “Greater New York” catalogue, “Passing Through Nothing on the Way to Nowhere”

Joe Lagura: Summit Observer , “Landscape exhibit offers intriguing view of the lay of the land,” April 27, p. B5

Lewinson, David: Artweek , “’Small World: Dioramas in Contemporary Art’ at MCA San Diego,” March

Mahoney, Robert: Time Out New York , February 24 – March 2, p. 72

Mustroph, Tom: Metropol , “Hängematten im Dschungel,” December 2

Millis, Christopher: The Boston Phoenix , “Hitting paydirt,” August 25, 2000, p. 11

Nakamara, Marie-Pierre: Art Actuel, “Etranges petits modes,” March–April, p. 55

O’Connell, Kim A.: Landscape Architecture , “Fungus Among Us,” March, p. 14

Ollman, Leah: Los Angeles Times , “Tiny World Create Grand Illusions,” pp. 69–70

Parcellin, Paul: Retro-Rocket.com , “View from above,” July 26, 2000

Pincus, Robert L.: San Diego Tribune , “Windows on the world waiting for,” January 20

Pincus, Robert L.: San Diego Tribune , “’World’ toys with magic of dioramas,” February 6,

Princenthal, Nancy: Art On Paper , “Artist’s Book Beat,” May–June, pp. 88–89

Richard, Frances: ArtForum , “Michael Ashkin,” May, p. 176

Rönnau, Jens: KünstForum , “Desert & Transit,” October–December, pp.321–324

Sherman, Mary: BostonHerald.com , “Landscapes keep distance from nature at ICA exhibit,” July

July 23, 2000

Siegel, Katy: ArtForum , “Greater New York,” May, pp. 174–175

Temin, Christine: The Boston Globe , “Illlustrating the loss of landscape,” pp. D1, D8

Tarquinio, J. Alex: Forbes Digital Tool , “Art Exposure,” March 11

Zimmer, William, The New York Times , “Getting Back to the Land in Summer Gallery Shows, May 14

Contemporary Visual Arts , “Sites Around the City: Art and Environment,” Issue 27, p. 85

1999 Carr, Genie: Artview , Winston-Salem, “Wonderland” and “Editor’s View,” April 14, p. 2

Exley, Roy: Contemporary Visual Arts , “Michael Ashkin,” Issue 26, p. 61

Funderburk, Amy: Carolina Arts , “Perceptions of Reality: Sliding Scale,” April

Gellatly, Andrew: Frieze , “Michael Ashkin,” November–December

Halle, Howard: TimeOut New York , January 14–21, p. 50

Kent, Sarah: TimeOut London , September 29 – October 6, p. 50

Kroner, Magdalena: Rheinische Post , Dusseldorfer Feuilleton, “Spurensuche ohne grosses Risiko,” July 29

Liebs, Holger: Suddeutsche Zeitung , Munich, “Da spuck’ ich drauf!,” September 17

Meister, Helga: Westdeutsche Zeitung , Dusseldorf, “Venus im Schokobrei,” July 31

Merten, Ulrike: Neue Rhein Zeitung , “Die Venus badet in weisser Schokolade,” August 4

Patterson, Tom: Winston-Salem Journal , “Micro to Macro,” February 21, pp. E1–E5

Reindl, Uta M.: Künstforum International , “mode of art,” September–November

Vaillant, Alexis: Les Inrockuptibles , "Lost lost Highway," June 2–8, p.67

Bonner Generalanzeiger , “Im Himmel mit Lady Di,” August 7–8

Flash Art , "'Time After Time' at Tsingou," January February, p. 39

The Independent on Sunday , “Michael Ashkin,” September 26

Le Journal des Arts , May 14 –27

Scene , “Michael Ashkin,” October 1999

1998 Brown, Hero: Independent on Sunday , "Party On," September 13

Dalton, Jennifer: Review , "Shake at PS122 Gallery," June 15

Damianovic, Maia: Tema Celeste , "Michael Ashkin," pp. 65, 109

Farel, Zena: Indiaweekly , "All the Young Guns," September 11–17, p.25

Gayford, Martin: The Spectator , "The art game," September 12, p. 48

Green, David A.: The Village Voice , "On the Road," March 17, p.127

Griffen, Tim: On Paper , May–June

Halle, Howard: Time Out New York , March 19–26, p. 57

Hicks, Robert: The Villager , "Industrial but not alienated from nature," February 25

Hogin, Laurie: New Art Examiner , "Michael Ashkin," July/August, p.56

Johnson, Ken: The New York Times , March 6, p. E42

Johnson, Ken: The New York Times , March 13, p. E36

Kenton, Mary Jean: Sculpture , “Elsewhere: works by Michael Ashkin, Julie Becker, James

Casebere, Miles Coolidge and Thomas Demand,” March, pp. 67-68

Kimmelman, Michael: The New York Times , December 18, p. E40

Kimmelman, Michael: The New York Times , “In Connecticut, Where Caravaggio First Landed, July 17

Kliner, Dion: Flash Art , Summer, "After the Disasteroid," pp. 113–115

Levin, Kim: The Village Voice , March 10

Liebmann, Lisa and Adams, Brooks: New American Art at the Saatchi Gallery , "Nothing Left Undone" (catalogue essay)

Murphy, Anna: Oberserver , "Dinky cars," August 23, pp. 22–23

Pedersen, Victoria: Paper , "Fascinating Fictions," March, p. 132

Perchuk, Andrew: ArtForum , "Michael Ashkin," Summer, p. 129

Rockwell, Steve: dArt International , April, May, June, p. 38

Searle, Adrian: The Guardian , "The infants Liam and Noel on the sofa... Is this what passes for the new American Dream?," September 8, pp. 10–11

Smith, Roberta: The New York Times , "Edwin Zwack," May 29

Smith, Roberta: The New York Times , "Miles Coolidge," September 18, p. E35

Volk, Gregory: Art in America , "Michael Ashkin at Andrea Rosen," November, p. 129

Zimmer, William: The New York Times , "Landscape, the Site, the Meaning of Place," August 9, p. 12CT

NY Arts , "Mob Rule #11: Guilty Pleasures," April 1998, p. 9

1997 Adams, Brooks: Art in America , "Turtle Derby," June, pp. 37, 39

Arkhipoff, Elisabeth: Nova Magazine , "Michael Ashkin ne s'ennuie jamais assez," July–August,

Bellinger, Jesse: Daily Nexus , "Would I Lie to You?," January 16

Boardman, Andrew: New Observations , "Popular Metaphysics," No. 115, Summer, pp. 36–37

Chapman, Frances: WaterfrontWeek , "Whitney Biennial: There's No Place Like Home," May 22, p. 11

Clearwater, Bonnie: Tableaux , Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (catalogue essay)

Dailey, Meghan: Bookforum , "Horse's Mouth," Summer

Dalton, Jennifer: Review , "B is for Biennial: Not Bad, but a Little Boring," April 1, p. 13

Doran, Anne: Time Out New York , July 10–17, p. 49

Drucker, Johanna: Sculpture , "Thingness and Objecthood," April, pp. 20–23

Fend, Peter: Artnet , "Architecture at the Whitney Biennial," May 13

Freedman, Matt: Review , "Space Mountain & Other Diversions," April 1, p. 10

Gabriel, Trip: The New York Times , "Trafficking in Toxic Waste and Human Loneliness," April 6, p. 43

Goldberg, RoseLee: Mirabella , "Running the Show," March/April, pp. 30–31

Halle, Howard: Time Out New York , "Showtime at the Whitney," April 3–10, pp. 39–40

Harris, Jane: Review , "The Surreal of the Everyday Fantasy Reigns," April 1, p. 39

Harris, Jane: Review , "Where are the Trains? An Interview with Michael Ashkin," April 1, pp. 41–44

Herron, Annie: Review , "Inside/Outside," April 1, p. 73

Johnson, Ken: The New York Times , August 8

Kimmelman, Michael: The New York Times , "Sculpture," August 8, p. C25

Klein, Michael: Sculpture , "Michael Ashkin: The Other Side of the Tracks," October, pp. 10–11

Knight, Christopher: Los Angeles Times , "Show Time at Biennial: Send in the Big Crowds," March 21, pp. F1, F26

McClure, Lissa: Review , "The Medium and the Message," April 1, p. 67

Miller, Donald: Post-Gazette , "Models create another reality," Oct. 11

Morgan, Robert C.: Review , "Whitney Biennial Makes History," April 1, p. 46

Mumford, Steve: Review , "Art and Adolescent Megalomania: Boy Toys and Other Cool Stuff," April 1, pp. 36–37

Nahas, Dominique: Review , "In Focus: The 1997 Whitney Biennial," April 1, p. 6

Pedersen, Victoria: Paper , "Biennial Best," March

Pospiszyl, Tomas: “Paraphrasing the Real: The Miniature Works of Kim Adams, Michael Ashkin and Steven Brower,” Thesis for MA in Curatorial Studies, Bard College, 1997

Rego, Juan Carlos: Arte y Parte , "Bienal Whitney," Summer 1997, p.33

Robinson, Walter: Artnet , "The 1997 Whitney Biennial: A First Look", March 19

Reneau, Oliver: Technikart , July–August, p. 94

Shearing, Graham: Tribune-Review , "Exhibit takes viewers 'Elsewhere'," October 17, pp. D3–D4

Solin, Allison Lee: The Independent , "Impact," January 9

Worth, Alexi: Slate , “1997 Whitney Biennial,” April 3

1996 Arning, Bill: Time Out New York , July 31 – August 7, p. 28

Arning, Bill: Time Out New York , July 10–17, p. 29

Arning, Bill: Time Out New York , May 29 – June 5, p. 26

Borruso, Sarah: HotWired , "Destination Nowhere," June

Bretthauer, Laurie: NY Soho Arts Magazine , "The Politics of Emerging Artists," November, pp. 12–13

Dykstra, Jean: Brooklyn Bridge , "Portable Wasteland," May, pp. 31–32

Henry, Max: Zingmagazine , Autumn/Winter, pp. 163–164

Levin, Kim: The Village Voice , May 21

Levin, Kim: The Village Voice , February 13

Lovelace, Carey: Newsday , "Works With Quirks," June 7

Mendelsohn, John: Artnet , "Michael Ashkin at Bronwyn Keenan," June

Pall, Ellen: The New York Times Magazine , "The Do-It-Yourself Dealers," September 1, p. 35

Penenberg, Adam: World Art , "Tablelands," December, pp. 22–24

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , July 17–23

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , May 15–21

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , March 13–19

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , February 7–13

Smith, Roberta: The New York Times , "Space, Mind, Place," July 19, p. C26

Smith, Roberta: The New York Times , "Enter Youth, Quieter and Subtler," May 17, pp. C1, C4

Steinke, Darcey: Spin , "Small World: Inside Michael Ashkin's miniature wastelands," June, p. 38

Van de Walle, Mark: ArtForum , “Michael Ashkin,” October, p. 118

West, Aurora: Columbia , Fall

Wiens, Ann: New City , December 12

Harper's Magazine , (reproduction) September, p. 22

Harper's Magazine , (reproduction) March, p. 27

The New Yorker , February 12

The World (The Poetry Project), No. 52

1995 Cotter, Holland: The New York Times , June 30, p. C21

Glueck, Grace: The New York Observer , "Captivating Zoos of Art; To Be Young, 3-D and Way Cool , " May 29

Hess, Elizabeth: The Village Voice , "Never-Never Wasteland," May 23, p. 50

Klawans, Stuart: The Daily News , June 3

Levin, Kim: The Village Voice , October 24–30

Levin, Kim: The Village Voice , May 24–30

Pedersen, Victoria: Paper , June, p. 114

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , "Good Ship, Arty Pop," November 29 – December 6

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , October 11–17

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , September 13–19

Servetar, Stuart: The New York Press , May 31 – June 6

Wallach, Amei: New York Newsday , "Young Artists Exploring by Light of Imagination," May 19

The Print Collector's Newsletter , "Check It Out," November–December, p. 177

1994 Artner, Alan G.: Chicago Tribune , "Ashkin Constructs Bizarre Scenarios," January 20, Section 5 p. 11D

Bulka, Michael: New Art Examiner , "Michael Ashkin: Peter Miller Gallery," April

Camper, Fred: Chicago Reader , "Industrial Dreams," January 28, pp. 26–27

Fitzpatrick, Tony: The Gary Meyer Show : Art-O-Rama (WLUP AM/FM), interview with Ann Wiens, editor of the New Art Examiner, January 27

1993 Duncan, Charles: F Magazine , "Images of Unchecked Power," February, p. 3

1992 Artner, Alan G.: Chicago Tribune , "Michael Ashkin Constructions Do Double Duty," October 29, Section 5, p. 10

McCracken, David: Chicago Tribune , "Ashkin's Cardboard Works Tantalize," May 29, p. 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Catalogs, Edited Volumes, etc.

2021 Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What not to Photograph , edited by Jason Fulford, Aperture Books, ISBN: 978-1597114998.

2020 The Best Dutch Book Design 2019 , Stichting De Best Verzorgde Boeken, ISBN 978 90 5965 509 4,

The Other End of the Line , by Francis Cape and Paul Kennedy, 2020.

Michael Ashkin: were if not for , with essay by Bernard Yenelouis, Kaktos Project, 2020, ISBN 978-618-84736-0-7.

2019 Social Photography VII , edited by Peter Scott, Carriage Trade.

2014 Was Modelle Können , Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, ISBN: 978-3-86442-095-5. The Photographer’s Playbook , edited by Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern, Aperture, ISBN-13: 978-1597112475.

“Touch and the Cheirotic Apprehension of Prehistoric Figurines,” by Doug Bailey in Sculpture and Touch , edited by Peter Dent, Ashgate Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-1-4094-1231-1.

Social Photography III , edited by Peter Scott, Carriage Trade. 2013 The Second World Congress of Free Artists. In Three Acts , by Anthony Graves and Camel Depot/Centralia/Tiber , Workroom G Productions, DVD, with music by Annie Lewandowski and Tim Feeney, essay by Jonathan Skinner, with a grant from Cornell Council of the Arts. A More Perfect Day: Collection of Mudam Luxembourg , Artsonje Center, Samuso: Space for Contemporary Art, Co., Ltd., Seoul, ISBN: 978-89-93535-21. 2012 What I Know About Penises , by Shelly Silver, onestar press. 2010 Larger Than Life, Stranger Than Fiction , by Ulrike Groos, Snoeck, ISBN-13: 978-3940953537. Unearthed: A Comparative Study of Jomon Dogu and Neolithic Figurines , by Douglass Bailey, Collective, Aarhus Kunsthal, ISBN-13: 978-8792025272. Andrew Cochrane, Jean Zambelli, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, ISBN-13: 978-0954592127.

Malas Calles , by José Miguel G. Cortés, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern,

ISBN-13: 978-84-482-5398-1.

Spooky Booky , edited by Maggie Prendergast and Jackie Zdrojeski, Garlic Press.

2009 Michael Ashkin , edited by Annette Südbeck with essays by Anthony Graves and Elke Krasny, Secession, ISBN-13: 978-3902592279.

2008 Dictionnaire international de la sculpture moderne et contemporaine , by Alain Monvoisin, Editions du Regard, ISBN-13: 978-2841052110.

2007 Artworks: The Progressive Collection , by Dan Cameron, Toby Devan Lewis, Peter B. Lewis, Mark Schwartz, D.A.P., ISBN-13: 978-1933045726.

Sculpture Today , by Judith Collins, Phaidon Press Inc., ISBN-13: 978-0714843148.

From Yodeling to Quantum Physics: v.1 , Palais de Tokyo, ISBN-13: 978-2915639865.

2005 No.1: First Works of 362 Artists , Edited by Francesca Richer and Matthew Rosenzweig, DAP, ISBN-13: 978-1933045092.

2004 De Amerikan die ik nooit geweest ben (The American I never was) , (film), by Chris Keulmans and Rob Smits, Submarine, www.submarinechannel.com .

Prehistoric Figurines Corporeality and Representation in the Neolithic , by Douglass Bailey, Routledge, 2005, ISBN-13: 978-0415331524.

2002 Documenta 11 Platform 5: Ausstellung. Katalog . (3 catalogs) Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2002, ISBN-13: 978-3775790857, 377509888, 377579087-x.

Lateral Thinking: Art in the 1990s , by Toby Kamps, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, ISBN: 0-934418-60-8, 0-934418-61-6.

2001 Purple #7: New Jersey , Association Belle Haleine, 2001, ISBN-13: 978-2912684226.

2000 Small World: Dioramas in Contemporary Art , by Hugh Davies, Toby Kamps and Ralph Rugoff, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, 2000, ISBN-13: 978-0934418546.

Sites Around the City: Art and Environment , By Heather Sealy Lineberry, Arizona State University

Art Museum, 2000, ISBN: 0-9679547-1-1.

Desert und Transit , Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Museum der bildenden Kunste Leipzig, 2000, ISBN: 3-923701-87-x.

Greater New York: New Art in New York Now , P.S. 1, 2000, ASIN: B001NY9GQ6.

1998 Young Americans 2: New American Art at the Saatchi Gallery , By Brooke Adams and Lisa Leibmann, Saatchi Gallery, 1998, ISBN-13: 978-0952745372.

1997 1997 Biennial Exhibition (Whitney Biennial), by Lisa Phillips, Harry N Abrams, 1997, ISBN-13: 978-0810968257.

Tableaux , by Bonnie Clearwater, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, 1997, ISBN-13: 978-1888708035.

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2021 Cornell Council for the Arts Grant

The Hambidge Center residency

2019 The Walter Teimann Prize, Shortlist

2017 The Hambidge Center residency and scholarship

Cornell Council for the Arts Grant

2016 MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship

2015 Yaddo Residency Fellowship

2014 MacDowell Colony Residency, Marion O. Naumberg Fellowship

2013 Yaddo Residency Fellowship

2012 MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship

Millay Colony Residency Fellowship (The Bay and Paul Foundations Fellow)

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. Grant

2011 MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship

2009 Cornell Council for the Arts Grant

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship

2008 Eastern State Penitentiary Proposal Development Grant, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2000 Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, Marfa, Texas

1999 New York Foundation for the Arts, Lily Auchincloss Foundation Fellow, Sculpture

1998 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. Grant

INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS

Whitney Museum of Art, New York, New York

San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California

Kolumba Art Museum, Cologne, Germany

Berardo Museum, Lisbon, Portugal

Arp Museum, Remagen, Germany

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

FMAC – Ville de Paris, Paris, France

MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina

Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York

Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado

Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Progessive Art Collection, Cleveland, Ohio

Mallin Collection, Buckhorn, Pound Ridge, New York

Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York

Tishman Speyer Properties, New York

Galerie OstLicht, Vienna, Austria

All artwork © Michael Ashkin

Power struggle between Fisher Island association’s directors ignites lawsuit

Complaint accuses five board members appointed by developer Fisher Island Holdings of voting on matters despite conflicts of interest

A power struggle is taking place on ritzy Fisher Island.

Fisher Island Community Association board members Michael Ashkin, Jeff Horowitz, Marc Peperzak and George Pearlman are suing the board’s five other directors appointed by developer Fisher Island Holdings over future development in the wealthy enclave and unpaid transportation services.

Fisher Island , reachable only by ferry, boat or helicopter, is consistently ranked as America’s wealthiest zip code .

The lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Court last month accuses developer appointees Heinrich Von Hanau, Lauren Marks, Lee Ann Ryan, Mark Reid and Nicanor Gavidia, all of whom are also corporate officers and directors for Fisher Island Holdings, of voting on two community association matters despite having alleged conflicts of interest.

The complaint claims that the five directors voted for an expensive restoration of a Fisher Island seawall that is going to cost the community association $9 million, nearly $3 million more than a proposal favored by Ashkin, Horowitz, Peperzak and Pearlman. The method approved by the five developer appointees would increase the developable area on a parcel close to the seawall, thus benefiting the economic interest of Fisher Island Holdings, the lawsuit states.

Von Hanau, who is Fisher Island Holdings’ president, Marks, Ryan, Reid and Gavidia also voted not to charge the developer for barge usage dating back to October 2017 that allegedly deprived the community association of more than $2 million in transportation fees.

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In both instances, the developer’s directors refused to recuse themselves from voting, the complaint alleges. Attorneys for both sides declined comment. But internal emails obtained by The Real Deal show both sides battling for the support of Fisher Island property owners.

A Sept. 20 message signed by Ashkin, Horowitz, Peperzak and Pearlman informs owners that the five developer directors “have forced through board decisions which are detrimental to the FICA membership, but clearly beneficial to the developer.”

The email also asks property owners to chip in voluntary contributions to pay for the lawsuit, which is estimated to cost between $200,000 to $400,000. “Since we have no independent authority to secure funding we first asked if we could use FICA funds to defend you,” the email states. “The answer was a firm no from the Fisher Island Holdings directors. We are forced to ask you to help us with a voluntary contribution of $1,000 or more.”

On Sept. 29, the five developer directors sent a response stating Ashkin, Horowitz, Peperzak and Pearlman have “never been able to explain the factual or legal basis for their claims.”

“We have been fully transparent and explained our position on these matters on multiple occasions,” the Fisher Island Holdings directors wrote. “It is telling that the FICA resident directors’ lawsuit and communication to you fails to disclose that they sought the advice of FICA’s counsel on the key ‘conflict of interest’ question.”

The letter notes the community association’s counsel advised no conflict existed and there was no basis to preclude Von Hanau, Marks, Ryan, Reid and Gavidia from voting on the seawall and barge issues.

Space, Furrowed with Abysses: Michael Ashkin’s Horizont

“the modern city engenders various pathologies, among them agoraphobia and claustrophobia – the one an intense anxiety felt in open spaces, the other, a panic brought about by confinement. horizont channels both of these aberrations.”.

In 1996, eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, literary critic Andreas Huyssen described Berlin as a ‘city of voids …  ‘a historical text, marked as much, if not more, by absences as by the visible presence of its past’. The city that Huyssen wrote about no longer exists. The voids that pierced the heart of Berlin have mostly vanished, built over or repurposed in the service of capital accumulation and mass-market cultural memory. A walk around the city center reveals exactly the sort of urban landscape-as-image whose emergence Huyssen lamented – shops and public spaces, business and commercial developments.

Michael Ashkin’s Horizont explores a different kind of urban void – the ‘breaks, fragments, incoherencies, and contradictions’ in districts beyond the city center, where large-scale redevelopment has yet to take hold. The postwar architecture in areas like Marzahn, on the city’s eastern fringe, was thrown up quickly and without ceremony, in answer to a need for basic amenities. Functionalist construction of this sort may once have embodied modernist aspirations, but it persists into the present as a kind of zombie architecture, much of it abandoned, physically present but devoid of anima or soul. The architecture of the suburbs belongs neither to the historical image of pre-war Berlin, nor to its new identity as a contemporary global city.

There’s a kind of deadpan anarchy about places like these, patchworked together out of remnants and interstices that capitalist development can’t easily assimilate. This sort of space doesn’t respond readily to the camera’s propensity for order, and Ashkin’s photographs play on its strange, disorienting quality, looking up past the tops of buildings, peering out from behind knots of vegetation, gazing dully at the ground. Many of the photographs feel like accidents. The modern city engenders various pathologies, among them agoraphobia and claustrophobia – the one an intense anxiety felt in open spaces, the other, a panic brought about by confinement. Horizont channels both of these aberrations.

“The camera wasn’t meant to work this way, producing images that push back against its discipline, against our habits of seeing.”

In Berlin’s remade center, the conjoined logics of built space and photographic space operate in concert to create an image of the city as a traditional European metropolis and a high-tech global hub. The edges of Berlin have yet to be colonized by capital or by the gaze of the apparatus. Why here? Why this place, this view? There’s no map, no pattern, no obvious narrative behind Ashkin’s photographs – just an accumulation of decentred places, encountered tangentially, glimpsed out of the corner of the eye. Travelling by train to the outskirts of the city, Ashkin walked back to the center, guided by his instincts, never sure exactly where he was or what he was looking at, passing through neighbourhoods where the trauma of Berlin’s past has been renamed and bulldozed and built over, cloaked in anonymity.

The photographs in Horizont – vertical crops extracted from horizontal negatives – intensify this anonymity. They have the blunt impartiality of images created by an unreasoning agent – a photographer not fully in control of the camera, or a subject imperfectly incorporated into the space of the city. The camera wasn’t meant to work this way, producing images that push back against its discipline, against our habits of seeing. ‘Space begins because we look away from where we are’, wrote philosopher and critic Gus Blaisdell. The camera’s perspectival schema empowers this vectorial gaze – a gaze that brings spatial order to time itself, moving away from the here and now, quickening towards the horizon.

The transformation of Berlin’s center into an image makes its past visible as something distinct from the present, something easily consumable, its voids filled, its absences papered over. Horizont treats space and time in a different way. What’s at stake here is not just the subject of the image, but the camera’s subject; not what the photographer is looking at , but the points from which he looks. Scattered and plural, these points are the product of encounters with places that can’t be ordered in or by the photograph, where the past persists in the form of fragments and traces – ‘ghosts which no amount of development can really hide’, as Ashkin describes them. Horizont makes these ghosts and absences perceptible, blurring the lines of force that give shape to space and time to history.

Michael Ashkin

(All Rights Reserved. Text @ Eugenie Shinkle. Images @ Michael Ashkin.)

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Michael Ashkin

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“Drive Route 1 and 9 from Metuchen to the Holland Tunnel. Do this from South to North late in the afternoon on a sunny day to catch the full effect of the light on the multi-colored signs and roadside architecture. Make sure that . . . you stay on Truck Route 1 and 9 into Kearny. This last leg takes you over two rusted drawbridges into Jersey City, taking a turn past my favorite carpet store where several mutilated statues of loggers stand outside.” Michael Ashkin’s idea of a picturesque road trip may be a little closer to Tony Soprano’s than most people’s, but at least you could say, based on this extract from a 2001 interview with Jeff Rian, that he is precise with his directions.

In a text accompanying this imagery, Ashkin traces his fascination with the Meadowlands—the lowlands on either side of the Hackensack River described in National Geographic as “one of the least reputable landscapes on earth”—with its very indeterminacy, with the impossibility of attributing to it any consistent mood or condition. He appreciates the area’s sense of possibility, even when this carries with it a frisson of danger. “Trespassing is prohibited,” he writes, “and one assumes that those who do trespass are exempt from normal moral codes. Lone men wandering these sites are prone to unpredictable behavior.” There is an echo here of the dystopian interzones described in J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island and Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things : points in urban space where the fabric of civilization gives way and inhabitants are thrust into a future that appears more akin to the distant past.

The work of Robert Smithson, in particular his 1967 photo essay The Monuments of Passaic , is a regularly evoked precursor to Ashkin’s project. But where the fallout of environmental exploitation as imaged by Smithson stood in for a broad set of ideas about the social construction of landscape and the universal nature of entropy, Ashkin’s modest studies appear more personally felt in their commemoration of societal neglect. For the past ten years, the artist has exhibited tabletop dioramas made from plaster and resin and garnished with hobby-shop models. By sticking to a similarly restricted scale in his photography, he continues to resist the sublime and grandiose, even when his rubble-strewn yards and stockpiled concrete blocks, lent a kind of dignity by Ashkin’s somber treatment, take on the aspect of historical ruins.

Ashkin also visits California to poke around the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation and Villa Hermosa, Palm Springs. But what he finds there—barren rock piles, empty swimming pools, palm trees that look more like weeds than signifiers of lush exoticism—brings any thoughts of escape, or even variety, crashing down. Proving himself adept at finding the cloud enfolding any silver lining, Ashkin skirts the edge of self-parody, but his single-mindedness pays off as the web of detail in each scene parallels the operation of memory itself. As he puts it, “There are no vacant lots.”

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• Meet John Sobrato, Sobrato Organization

Read More Profiles

Chairman, sobrato development companies and joint venture board member.

By Duffy Jennings | Published: October 2009

On a polished credenza in John A. Sobrato’s corner office in Cupertino sits a scale model of his 147-foot yacht, the only item on the eight-foot-long sideboard. The modern white craft’s long sleek lines and pointed bow make it easy to imagine the boat cruising on the high seas, destined for exotic ports, Sobrato at the helm.

But that’s not much of a stretch. John Sobrato has been the captain of his own ship for more than fifty years, ever since he began selling homes while he was an underclassman at Santa Clara University. Today he pilots a family real estate development organization now known as much for its philanthropic work in Silicon Valley as for its vast property holdings.

A charter member of Joint Venture and a longtime board member, Sobrato feels strongly about the organization’s regional education programs, and has contributed both time and dollars to the Alliance for Teaching initiative that works to develop, recognize and reward teachers in Silicon Valley.

“That’s what we really need in this valley,” he says. “Teachers are the most important asset we have, and our education system in this state is failing them and our students. Colleen Wilcox is doing a great job with that program.”

Joe Parisi, CEO of Therma and a fellow Joint Venture board member who has been Sobrato’s friend for some forty years, says Sobrato is “always fair-minded, very generous, easy to get along with and very community-oriented.”

“John is probably the most organized person I know,” Parisi says. “He is so focused on whatever he is doing. He can get more done is less time than anybody.”

Sobrato, now 70, was born in San Francisco, the only child of Ann and John M. Sobrato. His father had emigrated from Italy after working as a chef for the American army during World War II. Starting as a dishwasher, the elder Sobrato eventually saved enough to open his own place, which became renowned as John’s Rendezvous in North Beach.

“John’s Rendezvous and Bimbo’s were the two most popular places in town,” Sobrato said. “My father’s restaurant was Herb Caen’s favorite place to go. I worked there sometimes, but my father told me not to go into the restaurant business. It was so hard.”

The family moved to Atherton when John was two, but he was only twelve when his father died of cancer in 1952. With a young son to support, Ann Sobrato took English classes, sold the restaurant and went into real estate on the Peninsula.

Young John went to Bellarmine Prep then enrolled at Santa Clara as an engineering major. “But I quickly found out I wasn’t cut out for it,” he says, “and I switched to business.” That turned out to be an understatement. By his junior year, he was working three days a week selling modest homes in Palo Alto.

“I thought real estate would be interesting,” he says. “Back then, three-bedroom, one-bath homes cost around $20,000. With ten percent down, almost anyone could afford to buy a house.”

John graduated from Santa Clara in 1960, the same year he married his wife, Sue, whom he met at a wedding at the Palo Alto Elks Club. They will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary next year.

After graduating from Santa Clara, Sobrato founded Midtown Realty, specializing in the resale of popular Eichler homes, and then expanded into commercial real estate, working with his mother and partner Carl Berg. In 1974, he sold Midtown Realty to concentrate on the commercial development of properties in the rapidly emerging high technology industry.

Sobrato has been responsible for the development and construction of more than 250 office and R&D facilities totaling in excess of 15 million square feet. Today the Sobrato Development Companies owns a portfolio of properties encompassing eight million square feet and 7500 apartments in California, Oregon and Washington without institutional partners.

The portfolio includes the corporate headquarters of Apple Computer, Netflix, BEA, Siebel Systems, EMC, NVIDIA and Verisign as well as buildings housing offices for Yahoo!, the County of Santa Clara and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

In 1998, Sobrato created the Sobrato Family Foundation to provide philanthropic support to non-profit organizations and projects. Nearly forty-five non-profit service providers receive rent-free office space in two of Sobrato’s office parks in Milpitas and San Jose. Since 2000, the year Ann Sobrato died, the family has donated nine buildings and 124 acres of land valued at $312 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

“My mother was the one who started the family on the concept of giving back to the community,” says Sobrato. “She was a pink lady at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park and volunteered in many other community activities.”

In 2007 the Society of Fundraising Professionals recognized the Sobrato Foundation as the Foundation of the Year from a field of 175 international foundations..

John and Sue Sobrato have three children, John Michael, Sheri and Lisa, and seven grandchildren. John Michael, a 1983 graduate of Santa Clara University, is now the CEO of the family business.

John A. Sobrato is a member of many business, education, civic and community boards and foundations, and has received numerous honors and awards for his contributions to Silicon Valley’s business and non-profit communities.

John comes to the office weekly and travels frequently up and down the Pacific Coast for business, but in spite of his busy schedule, he plays tennis three or four days a week and finds time to ski – on both water and snow.

“I love to be active,” he says, looking fit and tanned. “I had a heart attack when I was 37 and it changed my life. I lost 50 pounds, quit smoking and got in shape.”

When he’s not working, you can find him and Sue spending time with family and traveling.

“We take the boat all over the world,” he says, nodding towards the model. “I love that boat. We spend a lot of time on it, sailing everywhere.”

• Meet Rebecca Unitt, City of Santa Cruz
• Meet Barry Vesser, The Climate Center
• Meet Adina Levin, Seamless Bay Area
• Meet Ashley Raggio, COO at Joint Venture
• Meet Neeraj Vadhan, Accenture
• Meet Robin Franz Martin, Food Recovery Initiative at Joint Venture
• Meet Ernesto Lucero, Economic and Community Development, City of South San Francisco
• Meet David Witkowski, Civic Technologies Initiative at Joint Venture
• Meet Hrishika Vuppala, McKinsey & Company, Bay Area
• Meet Kara Gross, Public Sector Climate Initiatives and Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance at Joint Venture
• Meet Michele Young, Recycling and Waste Reduction, County of Santa Clara
• Meet Michael Fox, Jr., Goodwill of Silicon Valley
• Meet Jennifer Chen, City of San Mateo
• Meet Ed Shikada, City of Palo Alto
• Meet Greg Kepferle, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County
• Meet Mayor Lily Mei, City of Fremont
• Meet Dr. Rakesh Chaudhary, Kaiser Medical Center, Santa Clara
• Meet Nicole Taylor, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
• Meet Christina Briggs, City of Fremont
• Meet Mairtini Ni Dhomhnaill, Countsy
• Meet Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, Santa Clara County District 4
• Meet Gary Dillabough, Urban Community
• Meet Supervisor Dave Pine, San Mateo County District 1
• Meet Mila Zelkha, Palantir Technologies
• Meet John Lang, economic development manager, Morgan Hill
• Meet Radha Sharma, Verizon Wireless
• Meet David Bini, Santa Clara & San Benito Counties Building & Construction Trades Council
• Meet Duffy Jennings, Joint Venture Silicon Valley
• Meet John Boland, KQED Public Media
• Meet Dr. Mary Papazian, San Jose State University
• Meet John Aitken, Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport
• Meet Greg Matter, JLL
• Meet Matt Mahan, Brigade.com
• Meet Nell Selander, City of South San Francisco
• Meet Dan Rich, City of Mountain View
• Meet Jessica Weare, Microsoft
• Meet Jon Walton, County of San Mateo
• Meet Edesa Bitbadal, City of Milpitas
• Meet Melissa Stevenson Diaz, City of Redwood City
• Meet Reed Hastings, Netflix and 2017 David Packard Award Recipient
• Meet Kailesh Karavadra, Ernst & Young LLP (EY)
• Meet Karolyn Kirchgesler, Team San Jose
• Meet Diane Doolittle, Juniper Networks
• Meet Jonathan Stock, USGS
• Meet Sherri Sager, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
• Meet Jennifer Pahlka, Code for America and 2016 David Packard Award Recipient
• Meet Dave Kaval, San Jose Earthquakes
• Meet Josué García, San Benito and Santa Clara County Building & Trades Council
• Meet Nuria Fernandez, Valley Transportation Authority
• Meet Sam Liccardo, City of San Jose
• Meet Dennis Jacobs, Santa Clara University
• Meet Edith Ramirez, City of Morgan Hill
• Meet Richard Moran, Menlo College
• Meet Lisa Bruner, Joint Venture
• Meet Marc Blakeman, AT&T
• Meet Kim Becker, Mineta San Jose International Airport
• Meet Dr. Susan Smarr, Kaiser Permanente
• Meet Jeff Hamel, EPRI
• Meet Terrence Grindall, City of Newark
• Meet Kim Springer, County of San Mateo
• Meet Tom McCalmont, McCalmont Engineering
• Meet Katherine Van Diepen, Anritsu
• Meet Sal Khan, Khan Academy
• Meet Larry Owens, Silicon Valley Power
• Meet Minnie Ingersoll, Google
• Meet Christina Gilmore, Town of Los Gatos
• Meet Don Hall, PG&E
• Meet Stacy McAfee, University of Phoenix
• Meet Steve Hemminger, Alston & Bird
• Meet Judith Greig, Notre Dame de Namur University
• Meet Dave Hodson, Skype
• Meet Bruce Knopf, Santa Clara County
• Meet Lenny Mendonca, McKinsey & Company
• Meet Fred Diaz, City of Fremont
• Meet Gautam Srivastava, LSI
• Meet Daniel Yost, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
• Meet Corinne Goodrich, SamTrans
• Meet Tom Klein, Greenberg Traurig
• Meet Bill Sherry, Mineta San Jose International Airport and Team San Jose
• Meet Mo Qayoumi, San Jose State University
• Meet Eric Houser, Wells Fargo Bank
• Meet W. Keith Kennedy Jr.
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Michael ashkin.

Michael Ashkin is an artist working in sculpture and photography. His work has been shown at the Whitney Biennial, Greater New York, Documenta 11, Vienna Secession, MUDAM in Luxembourg, Artsonje Center in Seoul, and Kolumba in Köln. Ashkin has published five photobooks:  Garden State  (Workroom G in 2000),  Long Branch  (A-Jump Books in 2014),  Horizont  (TIS Books in 2018),  were it not for  (Fw:Books in 2019), and There will be two of you (Fw:Books in 2023). He has been awarded two Pollock–Krasner Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship.  He has taught at Cornell University since 2006.

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

• Installation art
• Interdisciplinary art
• Landscape architecture
• Photography
• Visual representation

Related News

• Michael Ashkin: Artist Lecture
• Cornell Art Faculty 2024
• Michael Ashkin: Architecture and Utopia
• Good Object / Bad Object
• AAP Department of Art Announces Unique New Image Text M.F.A.

Classes (Selected)

• ART 4003 Thesis I This course continues the independent studio research and production of the Advanced Practice course to prepare students for ART 4004 - Thesis II. During Thesis I, students begin to research, develop, and clarify their thesis proposals through dialogues, readings, and critiques with members of the Core Thesis Faculty. Emphasis is on deepening awareness of the intention and reading of the work and situating individual interests within and against historical, theoretical, and conceptual contexts.
• ART 4004 Thesis II This course is the final B.F.A. studio semester in which students develop and present an independent body of work that may take the form of an exhibition or some other project. Students will work with members of the Core Thesis Faculty to define and refine the positions formulated within each work and to foster the ability to speak about one's own work as well as the work of others. Emphasis is placed on developing strategies of productive self-criticality to inform their work both during and beyond the thesis semester.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016)
• Yaddo Residency Fellowship (2013, 2015)
• Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (1997, 2012)
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2009)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• Kaktos Project , Athens, Greece (2020)
• Documenta 11 , Kassel, Germany, (2002)
• Session , Vienna, Austria (2009)
• Andrea Rosen Gallery , NYC (1998, 2000, 2002, 2005)

Publications (Selected)

• Ashkin, Michael, "were it not for" ,  Fw:Books,  Amsterdam (2019)
• Ashkin, Michael, "Horizont" ,  TIS Books, New York (2018)
• Ashkin, Michael, "Long Branch" ,   A-Jump Books, Ithaca (2014)

Selected Work

were it not for (2019).

Horizont (2018).

Long Branch (2014).