Biography
Mike Piggott was born in 1963 in Charlottesville, Virginia. He received his BA from Virginia Commonwealth University and continued his studies at the Winchester College of Art in Winchester, England. Over the years, Piggott has exhibited widely, with solo shows at Maya Frodeman Gallery (formerly Tayloe Piggott Gallery) in Jackson, WY; the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center in Virginia; Visions West Contemporary in Bozeman, Livingston, and Denver; and the Neapolitan Gallery in Richmond, VA. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions. Piggott currently lives and works in Victor, Idaho.
With a deep understanding of art history, Piggott creates evocative, semi-autobiographical works that reflect on the character and contradictions of life in the American West—both past and present. His paintings nod to folk art and faux naïf traditions while exploring two-dimensional abstraction and color-field techniques. The result is a body of work that feels both haunting and warmly nostalgic, a visual meditation on nature and humanity rendered in paint.
Influenced by artists such as Milton Avery and David Hockney, Piggott doesn’t simply paint; he reimagines space and sensation through inventive use of color and perspective, across painting, printmaking, and most recently, a breakthrough series of iPad drawings. His figures—ice skaters, cowgirls, solitary cabins—emerge as shadowy, poetic presences. Through them, Piggott communicates a quiet fascination with the fragility of life and the elusive emotions that defy language. "I like to skirt the mysteries," he says, a sentiment that runs through his dreamlike evocations of lakes, streams, and the spaces between memory and imagination.
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2024
“I’ll Take You There”, Maya Frodeman Gallery West (formerly Tayloe Piggott Gallery), Wilson, WY
“Counter Cowboy II”, Visions West Contemporary, Denver, CO
2023
“Here and Now”, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY
2022
“Travelling Exhibition”, Dairy Arts Center, Boulder, CO
2021
“I’ve Never Been Here Before”, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY
“Mountain Standard Time”, Visions West Contemporary, Denver, CO
2020
“Abacus”, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY
“Wallpaper”, Teton ArtLab, digital exhibition, Victor, ID