I first saw Mikey Yates work in our 2020 exhibition Drowned Neon Rose and I've been following him ever since.
Mikey Yates is Kansas City based painter born in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany. He grew up drawing the various characters that colored his life: Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, Ryu from Street Fighter and Gary Payton from the Sonics. Yates continues this practice today, but instead of strictly rendering fictional characters and sports superstars he paints family members and friends, vivid memoirs of his past, and present day situations. Yates received his BFA from Missouri State University and his MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder.
In this episode, Mikey and I talk about how he got involved in the arts, his practice and what's influenced him throughout his professional art career.