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 

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