Michael Haykin was born in 1954 and raised in Munich, Germany, while his father was in the military service for the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. His lifetime of extensive travel influences his work.

In addition to regular solo and two-person shows at galleries, Haykin’s work has been exhibited at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana, and the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana. He has been represented by Helander Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida; Works Gallery in Southampton, New York; Limbo Gallery in New York City; and Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City.


“Michael Haykin is one of the most refreshing and compelling realist painters working today. Whether it’s in his heroic scaled multi-paneled compositions, or his smaller easel-sized paintings, Michael’s veiled atmospheric perspective creates a mosaic of form and color—elevating the artist’s portraits and everyday scenes of landscapes into a surreal, dreamlike world of soft personal expression. Haykin’s aesthetic is perfectly matched to his ambition as a painter of the West, and I’ve observed that his canvases appeal to lovers of contemporary abstraction as well as those whose inclinations tilt toward traditional realism. On the surface the work appears to be straightforward and representational, but on closer examination one finds the paintings filled with images drawn from explorations of the artist’s internal narrative and personal mythology. I am very excited that Michael has relocated from Key West to Tucson and will be adding his enormous talents to the collective artistic genius of our region.”

Robert E. Knight, Executive Director, Tucson Museum of Art