You call this a career? (photo by Anne Staveley)

In 1979 Michael Sumner co-founded Burning Books with writer Melody Sumner Carnahan in Oakland, California, which has published thirty-five books.

He has also designed books for the Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the de Young Museum/FAMSF, NTT Intercommunications Center in Tokyo, the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, Thames & Hudson, and Chronicle Books.

Sumner has shown work 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 several art galleries.

Sumner does not have an art “practice.”
He just makes stuff.

• Autobiographical Note
• The Santa Fe Reporter talks to Sumner 
• Bluesky

Recent Collaboration
“Clock Basket No. 1”
Written and Animated by Benny Lichtner
Based on the graphic designs of Michael Sumner
COMPOST, Issue 02, September 2021
Compost is a magazine about the digital commons.

   (just kidding)

Selected Awards, Exhibitions, and Installations

• Ruins and Remnants, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2025
• Accumulation, Station5 Micro Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2025
• UFO: Visions, Sightings, and the Unexplained, Philspace Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2024
• Art in the Making, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, 2023
• Foto Forum Member's Juried Show, Santa Fe, NM, 2021-2024
• Crisis Mode, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA, 2020
• Superscript, Form & Concept, Santa Fe, NM, 2019
• Electron Salon, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, California, 2018
• Twice Through the Maze, Phil Space, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2016
• Accidental Photography, Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2016
• Goldfinch Variations, Peters Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2015
• Salon Mar Graff, Tesuque, New Mexico, 2009 SalonMarGraff.com
• Saints & Sinners, KiMo Gallery & 105 Studios, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2009
• Speak Out: Art, Design & Politics, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2008
• Word Virus, The Process, Santa Fe Complex, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2008
• Under 500, Salon Mar Graff, Tesuque, New Mexico, 2008
• Occam’s Razor, Santa Fe Complex, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2008
• Dialog 360: Artists in Conversation, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2007
• 7th Annual High Mayhem Emerging Arts Festival, 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
• Grand Prize Winner, First Editions Northwest Graphics Competition, Seattle, Washington, 1976
• Purchase Award, Colorado National Print and Drawing Competition, Henderson Museum, Boulder, Colorado, 1974