Mike Glier & The Alphabet of Lili

The Alphabet of Lili, commissioned by The Drawing Center, consisted of a series of twenty-six acrylic and charcoal drawings on fiberglass and aluminum panels, measuring 45 × 36 inches each. In the past, Mike Glier's (born 1953) work predominantly addressed political concerns and the oppression at work in dominant, white male culture. His images, often culled from the media, were given renewed force and meaning when rendered in the artist's expressive charcoal line, frequently applied directly on the wall. The Alphabet of Lili marked a significant shift in the artist's work from the overtly political to the deeply personal. After moving to a farm in upstate New York, interacting with nature, raising animals, and parenting a child, Glier returned to life-drawing.

His subjects addressed elemental concerns of birth, death, sexuality, gender, and childrearing—underscoring a universal dimension at the same time that they were clearly autobiographical. This project was a documentation of the phenomenon of the father as a hands-on caretaker. The series of 26 panels unfolded as an illustrated alphabet for Glier's daughter, Lili. Glier layered and combined images inspired by each letter, while repeatedly returning to the enigmatic form of a child's stocky legs. Although utilizing the traditional primer format of an alphabet game, the panels expanded beyond their designated letter and its corresponding image, resonating with a sense of narrative progression. Glier's relationship to traditional drawing is significant. He possesses the effortless style of a practiced draftsman but with an emphasis on process over completion. His commitment to traditional draftsmanship, complete with dramatic chiaroscuro and old master techniques, is not, however, about a rupture with the avant-garde as much as it is an attempt to integrate the techniques of life-drawing with the intentions and processes of contemporary artmaking.

This project represented a unique opportunity for Glier and The Drawing Center. His consistent affirmation of drawing as an end in itself, his focus on ambitiously scaled installation drawings, and his continued investigation of significant social concerns made him an ideal choice for The Drawing Center's first solo exhibition of a mid-career contemporary artist deserving of attention.