BIOGRAPHY
For over fifty years Michael Francis Reagan specialized in hand-painted original maps and editorial illustrations for books and magazines including National Geographic, The New Yorker, Smithsonian, Harper’s, Audubon, and many others. 225 of Reagan's original illustrated maps are in the collection of the Map and Atlas Museum in La Jolla, California and will eventually be permanently housed at The Library of Congress. His hand-painted maps and paintings can also be found in private, corporate, and museum collections throughout the world. Now, for the last few years Reagan has been concentrating on a series of oils and watercolors titled Solitude which can be seen in a number of galleries.
Reagan (pronounced Reegan) was born in El Dorado, Arkansas but grew up on army bases around the world. At an early age he demonstrated an interest in art and was enrolled in drawing and painting classes in Japan and later Germany. He joined the Navy at the age of seventeen during the Vietnam War and afterwards studied painting at the University of Arkansas MFA program with an emphasis on painting and art history. He then accepted an assignment with the Peace Corps in Ivory Coast West Africa, where he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator of textbooks, but more importantly, where he met his future wife, Christine.
He and his Christine (a creative weaver) share a studio in the mountains of western North Carolina where they paint and weave side by side. They have four grown sons and three grandchildren.
Partial List of Commissions and Collections:
The National Park Service, National Zoo, Peace Corps, The Nature Conservancy, Tampa History Center, National Archives, San Diego Zoo, Alleghany Trail Alliance, Heifer Project, Ducks Unlimited, Jane Katcher Collection of Americana, Florida Wildlife Initiative, Napa Valley Appellations, Architectural Design Guild, Freer Gallery, Christie’s, Patagonia, the Coca-Cola Company, McDonald’s, and American Airlines.
Partial List of Clients:
National Geographic, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, Audubon, Outside, Harper’s, On Earth, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, Architectural Digest, Travel & Leisure, Orion, Bon Appétit, South Dakota Magazine.
Book publishers - Doubleday, Time-Life Books, Little Brown, Harcourt Brace, Vintage Books, St. Martin’s Press, Chronicle Books, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, McGraw Hill, Avon Books, Marshall Cavendish, The Richard Corrigan Art Collection.
Represented by:
George Davis Fine Art Gallery, Savannah Georgia
Grovewood Gallery, Asheville North Carolina
Justus Fine Art Gallery, Hot Springs Arkansas
Alex Gallery, Washington DC
La Jolla Map & Atlas Museum, California
The Library of Congress
Partial List of Exhibits:
Grovewood Gallery, Asheville North Carolina (The Last Mapmaker - solo show 2024)
George Davis Fine Art Gallery, Savannah Georgia (group show 2023 to present)
The Grovewood Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina (group show 2022 - present))
Justis Fine Art Gallery, Hot Springs Arkansas (group show 2021)
Gallery C, Raleigh North Carolina (solo exhibit 2020 - "Falling"
(solo show)
The Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla California - In 2018 the museum purchased 225 of my illustrated maps for their permanent collection to be eventually donated to The Library of Congress
The Grovwood Gallery, Asheville North Carolina (solo exhibit “Falling” 2018)
The Grovewood Gallery, Asheville North Carolina (group exhibit 2017 - Present)
Gallery C, Raleigh North Carolina (group show 2017)
The Annesdale Park Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee (solo exhibit "Charted: Natural Studies" 2016)
The Annesdale Park Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee (summer group exhibit 2016)
Carolina Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina (group exhibit 2016)
Alex Gallery, Gallery A in Washington, DC ( solo exhibit "Ways of Flying" 2014)
Alex Gallery, Gallery A in Washington, D.C. (solo exhibit "The Heart of the World" 2013)
Gallery 10 in Washington, D.C. (solo exhibit "Blood Trail")
Brody Gallery in Washington, D.C. (group "Bones")
Tula Foundation Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia (group)
45th North Carolina Artists Exhibit at North Carolina Museum of Art (group)
The Mint Biennial in Charlotte, NC (group)
Kinston Center for the Arts in North Carolina (solo)
Durham Arts Council, North Carolina (solo)
The Paper Plant Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina (solo)
Fayetteville Museum of Art in North Carolina (group)
Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia (solo)
Hand Gallery - Richmond Virginia Center for the Arts (group)
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (solo)
Danville Museum of Fine Arts in Virginia (solo)
Urbi et Orbi Gallery in Little Rock, Arkansas (solo)
Arkansas Arts Center – The Delta Art Show (group)