The opening retrospective of artist Michael Flechtner: Ecce Artifex will take place from 6 p.m. to  8 p.m. on Friday, July 11, at the Museum of Neon Art and is free to the public. Flechtner has made a lasting mark on the art form of neon through his mastery of three-dimensional sculpture, his employment of visual puns, and his role in mentoring future generations of neon benders. 

Born in Tiffin, Ohio, Flechtner had an early interest in colored light and electronics. He incorporated some of these elements into his first artworks while a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at Columbus College of Art and Design and during his Master of Fine Arts studies at Wichita State University.

After a trip to MONA,  the artist decided he would learn how to bend neon so that he could move to Los Angeles and participate in the popular new media scene. He enrolled in a six-week neon fabricating class with Freddy Elliott in Salina, Kansas. This taught Flechtner enough hands-on skills to work in a neon sign shop after relocating to Los Angeles. 

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Michael Flechtner Exhibition (Demi Sedrakyan)

He pursued commercial neon by day and his own sculptural neon by night at his studio in Van Nuys. “Considering my first visit to MONA in the late ‘80s and discovering this world of ‘Neon Art,’ my having an exhibit at MONA is coming full circle,” Flechtner said in a press release.

In 1991, Flechtner presented his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Neon Art. The exhibition was titled Ecce Signum, Latin for “Behold the Sign.” The title was emblematic of the artist’s play with a medium often associated with signage as well as his interest in symbols. Flechntner’s work transcends the category of signage, bringing it into the context of sculpture and conceptual art. Now, thirty-four years later, the  title for his follow-up exhibition at MONA translates to “Behold the Craftsman.” The title serves as a testament to the simultaneous humility and skill that neon craftspeople cultivate in order to create their works. 

Flechtner’s best-known public work in Los Angeles is the Neon Aquarium at Olympic and Sawtelle, completed in 1998. In 1999, he became a J. Paul Getty Trust Fund Fellow. He was commissioned by the USPS in 2011 to design a postage stamp for the Forever series: the Neon Celebrate! Stamp. The original artwork is held in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Flechtner also received the Botticelli Award and the Ford Foundation Award. In addition to his own work, he fabricates neon for other artists, including Bruce Nauman, Frank Romero, Stephen Antonakos, Doug Aitken, Alexandra Grant, and Betye Saar. 

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Michael Flechtner Installs “Sea Goat” in MONA Galleries (Corrie Siegel)

Established in 1981, MONA in Glendale exhibits cutting-edge electric, kinetic, and light-based artworks and historic signage to illuminate the past, present, and future through permanent and rotating exhibitions. MONA is one of the oldest continually artist-led and founded museums in the country; the first museum dedicated to preserving electric, kinetic, and neon art; and one of the few museums in the world co-founded by a high school student. 

The Museum’s collection includes contemporary neon art, vernacular signage, and electrical and technical equipment. Throughout its 40+ year history, MONA has fostered an awareness of historic neon signage through its LUMENS project with the City of L.A., which restored and relit many signs across the city skyline, and its popular bus tour, the “Neon Cruise.” MONA has witnessed the rise and fall of neon used by the sign industry and the current resurgence of neon used by creative artists and commercial designers today. Throughout its history, MONA has sustained and celebrated a community of artists and preserved specialized skills and knowledge in order to carry neon, plasma, kinetic, electric, and glass arts into another generation.

The exhibit runs through June 2026.