Michael P. Britto is a film & video renegade. He uses his camera to scream out life’s absurdities and pay homage to the mundane. A student of graffiti art and hip-hop culture, Britto, in the tradition of Basquiat, and Santiago Alvarez, is known to stage random community screenings, projecting his works onto the walls of schools, tenement buildings and alleys in Harlem. His objective is to show his work by any means necessary. Born and bred in Brooklyn, Britto began his career as a child, making television shows to amuse his family, with his aunt’s VHS camera. In 1999, Britto graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Communications Film and Video, Cum Laude from the City College in New York.
Britto’s work has been featured in Season 5 and 10 of Reel NY on WNET, Channel 13 and “The Artist View” at The Rush Arts Gallery in NYC. His experimental piece Niggafied was screened at a New York University media lecture, Imagenation and The NY International Latino Film Festival to name a few. Britto’s images where projected onto a brick wall beside street artist De La Vega’s paintings in Spanish Harlem, approximately 500 patrons and press members attended the grassroots art exhibit. Fall 2003, Britto received a NYSCA Grant for “Gimme Five: History of a Handshake”. In addition to the NYSCA grant Michael was named a Rockefeller Media Arts Fellow in 2005.
Britto’s goal is to use his art to give voice to marginalized communities and foster understanding in mainstream society.
