Cina: Art, Abstraction, Design

Interview with Christopher Atkins

Michael Cina and I have each been orbiting the Minneapolis art scene for more than a dozen years; I’ve been curating exhibitions and site-specific installations at museums and galleries while he’s been exhibiting his paintings and designing album covers and books for artists and record labels. Michael and I met a few times over the years through mutual friends but, unfortunately, our professional paths never crossed. When I saw that he was connected with some of my favorite musicians, like Matthew Dear and Lusine, I really started to pay attention. I’ve always admired his work; the monochromatic and full-color paintings are beautiful abstractions that are full of expressive and restrained energy, his graphic design is so assured yet clear and his typefaces are spectacular explorations of language and communication. And it’s all really strong. 

The pandemic and social distancing have affected us all but it’s forced me to stay connected to family and maintain meaningful connections with friends and colleagues. It just feels good to talk to people after being isolated for so long so I reached out to Michael after I heard a recent episode of the Plans We Make podcast. It turns out we have a lot of mutual respect for each other’s work and a lot to talk about. What started out as a short Zoom call has turned into an exciting work-partnership that includes surveying the work he’s been making for the past 20 years. The following interview (edited for length and clarity) occurred during a few visits to Cina’s studio while we were reviewing his paintings and drawings. He’s coming off his first Grammy-nomination (more on that below) and his work is moving in some new directions, which includes posting NFTs on SuperRare, so it’s a great time to hear more about what he’s up to. 

Atkins: Tell me about the trajectory of your career. Where did you start and where are you now?

Cina: I took a less traditional route than most. In 1996 I started looking for jobs after dropping out of college. I had been going for a double major in Visual Communication and Fine art. In my spare time, I was designing and learning to code my first website. The internet was an amazing place for me because I could publish work (design, fonts, art, 3D, etc) without having to print anything and thousands of people would see it immediately. 

I landed a job at a non-profit but at night I was working on a lot of personal projects like Cinahaus, Test Pilot Collective and contributing to the emerging design scene. After a couple of years I had enough momentum to go freelance. My first few jobs were doing animation for the NBA and working on the MTV website in 1999. 

Art and design equally appealed to me so a lot of my work has a dual focus of form, images and text. I wasn’t concerned about following a specific style as much as creating my own “artful” design. Looking back, it was digital art. I felt like the work was extremely valuable but it had no place in the design or art world, until recently. The ironic thing is that it’s locked on my old server and I couldn’t even play it bc the tech is obsolete. Technology holds the power in the end. 

When 2000 hit I changed things up and I started to get more serious about my career. My TrueIsTrue website was where I experimented with form, time, animation, code, etc. Joshua Davis got me into Flash and I started running with a new wave of designers that were also making some really exciting creative personal design projects. I started up an agency based on personal work with a fellow designer called WeWorkForThem and eventually started up YouWorkForThem to sell my typefaces. We did forward thinking work and showed work all over the globe. 

After running those companies for a while, I changed pace and started my own design studio, Cina Associates in 2010. That has been a wonderful and wild ride as well. 

Atkins: And now you’re getting some well-deserved international recognition for your work, not just from the fine art world but from the music and design community too.

Cina: I don’t focus too much on the wins, but the last few years have offered some great opportunities to have my work seen by larger audiences. I was just nominated for a Grammy for my Ghostly International box set design with Molly Smith. It was a big honor to go up against giant nominees; Wilco, Paul McCartney, Depeche Mode, Grateful Dead, especially working with an indie label. I also won an Emmy (Zero Days movie), had a book on my work for Ghostly published by VSCO, had a solo gallery show, shot a 45 minute video that traveled around the world’s galleries with Rafiq Bhatia, spoke at Adobe’s main conference, etc. Cina Associates has had a great last couple of years also with some great branding projects as well. 

Atkins: You’re a mulit-media artist, graphic designer and typeface designer. You also have this deep connection to music. Tell us a little more about what you do and how does it all overlap? 

Cina: I am interested in everything. I have explored a lot of the arts; video, animation, photography, pottery, stone lithography, painting (drawing, watercolor, acrylic, oil, murals), theatre, music, poetry, writing… I now concentrate on branding, art, graphic design and typefaces. 

I don’t see any divisions between the arts, it’s all expression in some way or form. I love coming at a problem with new and fresh eyes. Not knowing what you are doing, truly exploring, is a fun ride for me. Sometimes it’s stressful but I love being challenged and seeing through new eyes. 

Michael Cina is a polymath. His accomplishments in art, design and typography have been celebrated around the world by leading brands, publications and galleries. Cina is a notable pioneer of web design and also an accomplished painter who has exhibited across the globe. He is the principal at Cina Associates, which focuses on custom branding/design/type. VSCO released a monograph of his art for Ghostly International. He recently won an Emmy and in 2020 he is nominated for a Grammy for design.

Christopher Atkins is an independent curator and writer. He was Curator of Exhibitions at the Minnesota Museum of American Art from 2015 – 2019, where he organized numerous group- and one-person exhibitions, including the nationally recognized Ken Gonzales-Day: Shadowlands. He organized a variety of site-specific installations, solo- and group exhibitions, and dozens of exhibition-related public programs. He was Coordinator of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at Mia from 2009-2015, organizing ambitious and experimental site-responsive projects and initiating various artist-in-residency programs. He holds M.Res & M.A. degrees in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths College, University of London and B.A. History of Art from the College of Wooster.

This interview originally appeared on SuperRare Editorial. April 14, 2021.