BIOGRAPHY

ARTIST BIO

Miguel Angel Torres Vega (MIGZ) (b. 1979) is a New York–based artist and educator whose interdisciplinary practice investigates perception, material, and the relationships that shape how we experience the world. Although painting is currently the primary language of his practice, his broader work is rooted in making as a form of inquiry, drawing from observational painting, assemblage, writing, and reclaimed materials.

His ongoing body of work, Alternate Sides, uses modular reclaimed wood panels, found objects, and sustained observation to explore how light, material, balance, and arrangement influence perception. Working across subjects that include portraiture, family history, labor, migration, food, and everyday objects, Torres invites viewers to slow their pace of looking and discover the complexity embedded within ordinary experience.

Torres holds a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from SUNY Purchase College, an M.S. in Teaching from Long Island University, and a Graduate Certificate in Art History from Lindenwood University. He began studying observational figure drawing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1998 before continuing his education at SUNY Purchase, where his interests expanded to include painting, graphic design, and the relationship between composition and perception.

His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Hammer Museum, Lincoln Center, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, and other venues. He is a member of the artist collective Chop Shop and has taught visual arts in New York City public schools since 2013.

He lives and works in New York.