For those who missed Armin Mersmann's realistic graphite work at ArtPrize this past fall, there will be a second chance to catch his work this spring.

Richard App Gallery will host a five-week show including 16 graphite drawings and two oil construction composites by Midland artist and teacher Mersmann.

Mersmann, known for his incredibly naturalistic graphite portraiture, is no stranger to Grand Rapids. His collection of three graphite works, including "Occasional Angel," was displayed at the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology and landed in the top 50 during ArtPrize 2009.
It was during the ArtPrize competition that Richard App, also an ArtPrize artist (remember Nessie?), first saw Mersmann's work and knew he wanted to collaborate on a show.

"I thought it was the best at ArtPrize," App said. "It's so much like the real thing, it's eerie."

Mersmann, who emigrated from Germany when he was seven years old, has taught life drawing and the creative process at The American Academy of Art in Chicago and the Colorado Academy of Art in Boulder. Currently, he is the Art School Manager at the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art in Midland, where he teaches a two-year drawing course. His class includes many students who have never drawn before. The key, though, he said, is to learn how to teach yourself.

"There aren't art cook books," he said. "You have to go beyond what is taught in school, beyond the foundations, and teach yourself. 90 percent of what I do, I taught myself."

Being a successful artist is about more than having passion or talent, it takes hours of commitment.

"My kids come over and they know if they want to spend time with me, they are going to hang out in the studio," Mersmann said. "I have spent most of my life behind a drawing table; almost obsessive about it."

To create the surreal effect of his portraits, Mersmann chooses a model to sit for him and sketches from life. He then takes hundreds of photographs of the model from different angles and plasters them on the walls of his studio. And so begins Mersmann's three- to four-hundred-hour journey of creating a portrait.

"It always centers around a conceptual idea and has a narrative to it," he said. "The portrait isn't about the person. The person is an actor in my play. They must, to some extent, play the part."

Mersmann's father, also an artist, played the role of Mersmann's first teacher and competitor.

"I don't move to the big art scenes like New York or L.A. because I don't think you need to live there to make art," he said. "I'm not a joiner. I just want to draw."

See Armin Mersmann: Shadow Plays and meet the artist at a free reception April 23 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Richard App Gallery. The show runs through May 2010.

Pictured above: 3 On Zero by Armin Mersmann