MICHAEL SUMNER's artwork includes prints, drawings, books, films, and video.

Sumner's work has been shown in the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival, the San Francisco Cinematheque, the Polyphonix International Festival, a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition, the World Print Competition, and currently at Salon Mar Graff in Tesuque, New Mexico.

He has also worked as a graphic artist and book designer, producing books for publishers and museums, including Thames & Hudson, Chronicle Books, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In 1979 he co-founded Burning Books with writer Melody Sumner Carnahan in Oakland, California, which has published nineteen books of, and about, avant-garde music, art, and literature.

In 1989 Sumner and Carnahan moved Burning Books to New Mexico where they continue to produce art and publish books, expanding their collaborations to include installations for galleries and museums.

Selected Awards, Exhibitions, and Installations
Dialog 360: Artists in Conversation, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2007
Avoid Eye Contact, High Mayhem Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2007
IPI Festival 2007, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2007
Comin' Down the Mountain III, Donkey Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2006
See You in Hell, MOV-iN Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2006
Salon Mar Graff, Tesuque, New Mexico, 2006
Confronting the Ordinary, SFCC Media Arts Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2006
Illustrious: Art and Words, Magnifico Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2004
[re] Readings: Artist's Books Now, Gallery Lux, San Francisco, 2003
Revealing the Mysteries: The Artist's Book in the Bay Area, San Francisco Center for the Book, 2003
Organizing the World: Sculptural Interventions, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2001-2002
Sound and Complexity, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2001
4 for the Book, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2001
My Enemy, The Window Project, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2000
Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, Charlene Garry Book Arts Symposium, Mills College, 1999
Charm & Repent, The Window Project, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1999
Novel on the Wall, San Francisco Center for the Book, 1996
Burning Books Retrospective, Olin Library, Mills College, Oakland, California, 1996
Binary Visions '95, The Printmaker, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1995
Southwest '90 Fine Arts Competition, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1990
San Francisco Cinematheque (film screening), San Francisco Art Institute, 1987
Polyphonix International Festival (film screening), San Francisco Art Institute, 1984
Prize, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor Michigan, 1982
Fourth Annual San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival, 1982
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition (15 museums in the U.S. and Canada), 1977-1979
World Print Competition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1977
Young American Printmakers Invitational, Dallas, Texas, 1977
Purchase Award, Colorado National Print and Drawing Competition, Boulder, Colorado, 1976
Grand Prize Winner, First Editions Northwest Graphics Competition, Seattle, Washington, 1976

IMAGES TO COME