“The fantastical, dream-like effect of a figure isolated in a cavernous hall, surrounded or even overwhelmed by art, is also somehow an unsettling one. Partly this is due to the heightened reality of DiMichele’s dioramas, where he is able to precisely manipulate light and perspective, but it is also something more.There is love here- love of art, love of drama, love of architecture- but a certain coldness too. Just as the art is so much bigger, elevated, the human figure is inversely smaller, more vulnerable and subservient to the human vision embodied in art.” James Lee Tullis – Platinum Magazine describing DiMichele’s work.
DiMichele describes his work saying “My work has always focused on abstraction, initially with non-objective imagery, and later by examining the concept of abstract art in various ways, questioning its conventions and traditions. These works took the form of painting, painted relief sculpture, drawing and installation. Since 2000, my work has taken the form of large scale photography, although it has little to do with the usual issues in that medium. The photographs I create depict fantasy installations in grandiose exhibition spaces. The works are produced by first building scale models of exhibition spaces, and creating within the spaces original artworks in drawing, painting and sculpture mediums. These installations are then photographed with a large format camera to create the final works.
The Pseudodocumentation photographs are inspired by my background as an installation artist, my passion for monumental museum and gallery architecture, and my abiding love of abstract form. The works reverse the usual situation whereby an artwork is created, subsequently documented by a photograph, and reproduced in a book or magazine as a representation of the work.