Education

• M.F.A., Lesley University College of Art and Design
• B.F.A., University of Alaska Anchorage  

Biography

Michael Conti is a photographer and filmmaker living and working in the land of the Dena’ina people in Anchorage, Alaska. He earned a BFA from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and an MFA from Lesley University College of Art and Design. His video work has been shown at the Nam June Paik Art Center in Seoul, South Korea, ContainR at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada and won awards at the Anchorage International Film Festival.  In 2016 he mounted a solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum entitled “Stick and Puck.”   He has been included in numerous juried and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, as well as 20 solo shows.

He received a project award from the Rasmuson Foundation in 2006, 2015 and 2022. He is a Connie Boocheever Fellow from the Alaska State Council on the Arts in 2011. He is a term instructor of photography at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Teaching Responsibilities

• Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced Photography
• Digital Video, Experimental Photography

Professional & Department Service

• Professional Photographer. Clients include
  • Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
  • Alaska Tribal Health Consortium
  • Alaska State Council on the Arts
  • Alaska Native Heritage Center

Publications

• Creative Alaska: A Ten Year Retrospective of support for Alaska Artists, ed. Sven Haakanson and Amy Steffian, University of Alaska Press
• Up Here: The North at the Center of the World, ed. Julie Decker and Kirsten Anderson, University of Washington Press
• Art Light Play: Re-Imagining the Winter Campus, ed. Herminia Din and Priscilla Lema, Bright Ideas Design Co, Ltd.
• True North – Contemporary Art of the Circumpolar North, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center

Exhibitions

Solo

2021     I Protest, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska
2021     It Won’t Be The Same, But It Might Be Beautiful, Collaboration with Nina Elder, Bunnell St. Art Center, Homer, Alaska
2018     Short Stories, Out North Contemporary Art House, Anchorage, Alaska
              You Can’t Go Home to Cleveland Ohio, Arc Gallery, Anchorage, Alaska
2017     El Camino Real, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska
2016     Stick and Puck, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Alaska

Group

2023     Protection: Adaptation and Resistance – traveling exhibition
              Bunnell Street Art Center, Homer, Alaska
              Center for Arts and Culture, Portland, OR
              Tulsa Living Arts, Tulsa, OK
              Folk Art Museum, Santa Fe, NM
              Alaska State Museum, Juneau, AK

2023     Di Bestiis Insularum, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, AK, 2022 
              Alaska Biennial, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, Alaska
2020     Anthropocene, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska
2019     Snow Day, Bivy Space, Anchorage, Alaska 
2019     State Proof, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Alaska
2017     Lokkus Arte Contemporaneo, Medellin, Columbia, South America
2017     Decolonization, curator: Asia Freeman, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC 

Films 

2020  Joe Senungetuk: Art and Life 

Residencies

Awards

• Individual Artist Project Award, Rasmuson Foundation, Anchorage, Alaska
• Connie Boocheever Fellowship, Alaska State Council on the Arts, Anchorage, Alaska
• Career Opportunity Grant, Alaska State Council on the Arts, Anchorage, Alaska