“I’m not a big fan of photos of myself, but here is one of me on a bus in Seoul, Korea taken in the fall of 2023.” - Micah

Micah Lexier is a Toronto-based artist whose activities include making, collecting and organizing. He has a deep interest in measurement, increment, found imagery and display structures. He has presented over 120 solo exhibitions, participated in more than 250 group exhibitions, and has produced fifteen permanent public commissions. In 2015 Lexier was honoured with a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Lexier’s work is in numerous public and corporate collections including The British Museum (London, England), the Contemporary Art Gallery (Sydney, Australia), The Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), and The National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). Micah encourages you to check out his Instagram page for a fuller understanding of his practice and interests.

Thanks for joining us, Micah. How are you today? What’s life like in your studio?

After reading this, I immediately got up and took the following photo. I’m working on the layout of a zine that I am making with drawings by Noelle, who is 5-years old. She drew on top of a series of my invitations for a recent exhibition at a gallery owned by her mom. I like how these drawings relate to the history of artists making drawings on existing items like hotel stationary or restaurant receipts. You can see some of Noelle’s drawings on the floor, as I figure out page-spread pairings and sequences. If you look closely enough at the image on my computer screen, you can see your list of questions, which I will now sit down and answer.

Your works seem to merge familiar, everyday objects with good ideas. When we first came across your work on Instagram, we thought it was an authentic ephemera page, but diving deeper, we discovered your artistic career. How would you define yourself and your art?

Like most artists, I’m not that comfortable defining myself. I make what I want to make and let others figure it out. I do consider my IG page part of my art practice. It brings together my many interests including artwork I make, research, including research into both historical and contemporary artists, and the display and presentation of objects culled from my various collections.

How does your creative process unfold? Do you follow a specific method or have any particular rituals?

I respond to things. I rarely make things for the sake of making things. Most of the things I make are in response to an invitation – an invitation to make a zine, or a multiple, or an exhibition, or a public artwork. I work best when responding to a condition, a process, or a constraint.

You once described yourself as "a person collecting stuff." Yet, that makes you the curator of your own collection. What was the latest discovery from this collection, and what makes it special to you?

A few minutes before sitting down to answer these questions, I was on Ebay looking to see if there was anything that caught my eye. When searching, I always start with a prompt and then see where it takes me. I went down several rabbit holes today, including “instruction sheets for solving puzzles” and “boxed sets of metal puzzles”. But the item that caught my eye enough that I ended up buying it, was something described as “Wooden Puzzle Geometric Shapes Stampers w/ Knob holders (Set of 6 shapes)”. I’m a sucker for a rubber stamp and I’m very drawn to geometric shapes and simple colour combinations, so this item brought together a number of the things I love. I don’t think I would have bought the stamps if they were new, but the fact that they were used and had a patina to them was a contributing factor for why I chose to add them to my collection.

Your works often transform familiar objects into something entirely new with your touch. Is there anything you’ve recently come across that feels fresh and exciting for you?

See above. It was the first time I’ve ever seen this particular combination – each was a different shape, and each was painted a different colour.

Your "A Minute of My Time" project began in 1995 - the year I (Eylül) was born! Could you share how it evolved and what it means to you today?

I started that project at a time when I was making work about the various increments of time, i.e. years, days, hours etc. The “A Minute of My Time” series consisted of making small drawings that took exactly one minute, most often made with a pen on a pad of paper. I have made about 1,300 of these one-minute drawings between 1995 and 2000. When making an artwork for this series I look through this stockpile of drawings and select a drawing, which is then enlarged and transformed into an artwork using a variety of material processes. So, I continue to make new artworks from this series, but I only use drawings that were made in that original five-year drawing period.

How do you feel about the future? While AI accelerates many processes, your work conveys a palpable sense of "reality" that feels almost like an antidote to illusion. Do you think this perception of reality might shift as AI evolves?

As a human being, I am afraid of AI and what it means for our sense of reality. But as an artist, I don’t think it will affect what I do. At least I hope it doesn’t.

Your library on the lower floor of your house is such an intriguing concept. How long did it take to build? What was the most recent addition? Could you share a page from your favorite book?

Just to explain to those who are reading this, you are referring to the library in the basement, which consists of source books that my partner and myself use as inspiration. They are used books that we have collected over the past 15 years or so that we have picked up at various yard sales, used books shops, flea markets, library sales, or left in piles in front of houses, etc. Here is a favourite double-page spread from a magazine devoted to magic.

(Left) Micah’s library (Right) Micah’s favorite pages from a magazine

Do you have a favorite spot in your studio?

I don’t really have a favourite spot, but I do have a bookshelf directly above my computer which has copies of the books published about my work. I like to pull one down every so often to remind me of my past and to give me a confidence boost. I’m proud of what I’ve made so far in my four decades of being an artist, and books are such a great way of encapsulating a lot of information in one place. They’re rich nuggets of condensed time and they give me a lot of pleasure to look through.

Do you have any plans for the future? What excites you most about it? What do you dream of?

I’m looking forward to this coming year for several reasons. I’m presently working on a public artwork employing one of my favourite fabrication methods – baked enamel. And I’m in the planning stages of an exhibition that opens in October at MKG127 in Toronto. I joined the gallery late last year, after the previous gallery I showed with for the past 25 years closed. I mentioned earlier that I like to respond, so this exhibition will be made in response to the physicality of this gallery space. After showing in the same gallery for decades, I’m excited to see how the new room will affect the work that I make.