MICHAEL STEIRNAGLE
Body Language
MAR 7 - 21, 2025
Artist Reception
Friday, Mar 7, 4 - 7pm
 

In the 1970s, Michael Steirnagle began his career as an advertising art director before launching his own graphic design studio, which led to an 18-year career as a freelance illustrator. He created highly realistic album covers, book jackets, and commissioned works for clients such as the Lyric Opera, Shedd Aquarium, and Major League Baseball.

Transitioning to fine art, Michael found inspiration in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, particularly artists like Richard Diebenkorn, blending realism with abstraction. His work evolved into expressive, narrative painting, using body language and familiar settings—beaches, cafés, and bars—to explore form and composition. Now living in Indian Wells, California, Michael’s surroundings, including his Midcentury Modern home, inspire poolside scenes and architectural elements in his work. Typically working from photographs, Michael constructs mosaics of shapes and builds rich textures with paint. The more abstract his figures become, the more playful and dynamic his work grows.

“I paint people, color, abstract shapes and light. People are initially drawn to a work of art by its shapes, values and colors—not by the subject matter which is secondary. My hope is that the viewer will find pleasure in the arrangement of shapes, colors and textures of the painting as well as in its subject which emerges, disappears and re-emerges throughout the work.”
– Michael Steirnagle
 

CODA Gallery is pleased to present "Body Language," an exhibition of new paintings by distinguished artist, Michael Steirnagle. Come meet Michael at an artist reception on Friday, March 7, 4 - 7 pm, during Art Walk on El Paseo. Enjoy a wine bar featuring organic wines and other beverages, benefiting Angel View, a Coachella Valley nonprofit founded in 1954, dedicated to serving children and adults with disabilities.