The Pitts of Woodruff - steel and shed antlers - 16” x 8” x 8”
“This helmet is another sculpture that is a relic of the Drum Heller collection. It was worn by one of the gladiators in the pitts of Woodruff.”
Michael Marras is a Los Angeles based sculpture artist, and has been working primarily in the metal medium since 2010. His life long love for three-dimensional sculptures has turned into a career. Michael graduated from Full Sail University in Orlando Florida with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Computer Animation. After three years of working in the fine arts department at Full Sail University, he then completed a yearlong apprenticeship with master metal sculptor, Marcos Cruz, based out of Orlando, Florida.
The artist worked as a full time metal sculpture artist in Ohio for seven years following his education. Michael’s first body of sculptures can be described as figurative robotics and artifacts from various worlds and stories manifested by the artist himself. During Michael’s tenure as an artist working in Akron, he has created and installed seven public sculptures in Northeast Ohio. His portfolio consists of over 80 metal sculptures. Michael’s philanthropy includes over $20,000 in donated works and time to local charities and youth organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of Akron. Michael was commissioned to create three sculptures to go along the Cuyahoga River to commemorate the revitalization of the river after the 1969 Cuyahoga River Fire. The public commission was installed in June 2019. After focusing intensely on public sculpture from 2014 to 2019, Michael has returned to an area that he enjoys most as an artist, creating and exhibiting his personal work. Previously splitting his time between commissioned sculptures and personal pieces in Northeast Ohio, the artist is now based out of Los Angeles and has since been invited to participate in gallery exhibitions with pieces from his collection during Art Basel Miami in December 2019.
Michael continues to evolve his artistic direction, and is currently working on his second sculptural body of work while establishing a studio in Los Angeles. The works can be explained as what he details to be Myhtrobotic. These sculptures, similar to notion of the artist’s previous works, individually contribute their own story to a grander narrative. Michael is also actively exploring themes in artificial intelligence.
