Michael Reese, a visual arts teacher in the Westminster Upper School since 2016, recently had his work featured in a solo exhibition titled Temporal Reflections at the contemporary Sandler Hudson Gallery. Reese graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design and has used his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in both teaching and professional art. His work appears in public outdoor installations as well as traditional indoor exhibits, drawing crowds and attention online. He has gained more than 2,000 Instagram followers dedicated to his art and has displayed his pieces in notable spaces across Atlanta. The High Museum, Coca-Cola, Georgia Power Company, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the Atlanta Hawks Foundation, Delta Air Lines and Invesco all display his works, proving his growing success in the art world. Pieces shown in these spaces range from photography plastered on large windows along Peachtree Street for the 40th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival to mixed-media portraits featured in the Delta Sky Lounge, created with gesso, gel paint, tissue paper and glitter. Reese’s most recent exhibition, however, may be his most ambitious and complex yet.
The Sandler Hudson Gallery currently features 14 works from Reese’s Temporal Reflections collection, all created using a process known as cyanotype on thick watercolor paper. Cyanotype is a photographic printing technique that produces a cyan-blue image, originally used to make “blueprints” of technical drawings. The process involves coating a surface with a light-sensitive chemical solution, exposing it to UV light and washing it with water. Reese overlays these negative prints—many of which depict women and men wearing astronaut helmets and intricate looping lines—with multicolored acrylic and ink spots that contrast the blue and white backgrounds.
The names of the pieces, as well as the collection itself, follow a space-centered theme. According to Reese, this theme comes from his fascination with cosmology and celestial science. He aims to connect astronomy with the rich and complex African American diasporic experience through his art. Titles of the prints featured in the gallery include Retro Causality, Time Symmetry, Semiotics for Interstellar Space Travel, Signal to Noise Ratio and Panspermia, the theory that life on Earth originated elsewhere in the universe and was brought here on meteoroids, asteroids or comets.
“I am investigating time travel as a transformative means to reimagine the past and envision a future where African Americans are not merely participants but architects of a cosmic narrative,” Reese said. Through this, he explores “the intricate relationship between futurist philosophy, the cosmos and the fluidity of time… to inspire dialogue about our place in the universe and the importance of creativity in shaping our futures.”
Reese’s pieces will be on display at the Sandler Hudson Gallery off Northside Drive from Sept. 20 through Nov. 1, 2025. For current art students seeking inspiration or anyone interested in viewing the collection, visiting the gallery is a meaningful way to support a Westminster teacher’s success beyond the classroom. Admission is free and all are encouraged to attend.
Edited by Oliver Chen
