All of the artwork on this page has been created by Armin Mersmann, who is our February Selected Artist

Please feel free to email Armin at: Mersmann@mcfta.org

Armin Mersmann was born in Remscheid, Germany in 1955, and in 1962, along with his parents he immigrated to the United States. He grew up in an artistic environment and was greatly influenced and tutored by his father, Fritz, a successful oil painter. Mersmann feels his career as an artist was inevitable, and says, “I never made the conscious choice to be an artist, it’s just what I did.” 

After six years of college, Armin began a very successful stint as a portrait artist in Chicago, Illinois. Although financially rewarding, he stopped doing commission work and soon became interested in the fine arts, work that at times was controversial, but more satisfying conceptually. “Art, my sanctuary, the very thing that gave me such pleasure was before now reduced to making a living. Art is too precious for me to make decisions based on finances.” This does not mean Armin will never do a commissioned portrait but it has to interest him conceptually, and he insists on total control over the image.  

Although he is mainly known for his intense naturalistic graphite drawings, he also works in oils, which often have an element of wood construction. “My interests have become exceedingly experimental with more attention placed on the surfaces of the work itself. Discovering and rediscovering my chosen medium is the everlasting stimulus that keeps me interested and excited. Accidental process and meticulous planning co-mingle in all my work. Texture, either real or illusionary, and that one ever-elusive brushstroke, the one that says it all; this keeps me searching and exploring.”

Armin lives in Midland, Michigan where he is the Art School Manger at the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art.  He shares a studio with his wife Valerie Allen, an accomplished artist in her own right.  Armin’s works have been shown in more than 150 exhibitions regionally, nationally and internationally. He has won more than 30 awards, recently winning first place in the Second Annual National Drawing exhibition in Santa Fe New Mexico.

Armin has taught drawing and the creative process at The American Academy of Art in Chicago; the Colorado Academy of Art in  Boulder Colorado; Northwood University in Midland Michigan; The Midland Center for the Arts, also in Midland; and countless workshop within the United States.