Mike Silverman '78

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Mike Silverman

Tags: Sculptor

Me in 50 words or less: Transforming e-waste into 'Living Surface' art. Putting the humanity back into technology.

Department: Religion

Bio

Mike Silverman makes intricate wall sculptures from the components of discarded technology — hard drive platters, printed circuit boards, the physical remnants of our digital lives. His practice finds an unlikely beauty in hardware built for obsolescence, transforming it into work that is alive with reflection, movement, and meaning. Silverman came to art as a second act. His background is in religion and business — an undergraduate degree in the former, a master's in the latter — and his formal art training amounts to a single stone carving class taken decades ago at the Pratt Fine Arts Center. Everything since has been self-taught: the design process, the fabrication techniques, the vocabulary he's built entirely on his own terms.

Based in Palm Beach County, Florida, his work has been shown in solo exhibitions and at major art fairs including Red Dot Miami and the International Symposium of Experimental Art.

Artist Statement:

I build wall sculptures from reclaimed hard drive platters and motherboards. The combination of materials, the use of light and reflection, and the conceptual territory this work explores form something genuinely singular. Other artists work with e-waste. Others work with reflective surfaces. Others make conceptually driven figurative sculpture. No one is doing all three at once

The work explores the relationship between technology, humanity, and the inner life — how we see ourselves, how we connect with others, and what we're becoming as technology becomes inseparable from who we are.

A Living Surface

The reflective quality of the hard drive platters is central to everything I make. They don't just reflect the designs cut into them — they reflect the room, the light, and the viewer, casting intricate forms onto surrounding walls. The work changes with every shift in angle and light. It's never the same twice.

Every Piece Has a Story

I want the work to resonate beyond the visual. Each piece has an accompanying text — an invitation to go deeper into what the work is asking.

I’d like to share my expertise with:

  • Alumni

  • Students

I would like to:

  • Share advice via phone or coffee chat

  • Speak on a panel

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