The HUB × Art Hampton · Bridgehampton
A Sense of Life, in Layers: Michael L. Bronspigel (MLB)’s Tape To Totems
Blue nudes, diamond hearts, a golden dollar sign, a patriotic duck, and a chair you could sit in — fifteen works by a local artist Michael L. Bronspigel (MLB), who turns everyday household materials, above all duct tape, into joyful color.
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Look closely at a work by Michael L. Bronspigel known simply as MLB — and you’ll be surprised to discover its composition. The artist is best known for transforming everyday household materials, primarily duct tape, into fine art: layers pressed, folded, and sculpted into form. The result is unmistakably cheerful. Fifteen pieces span wall works and sculpture: languid blue nudes, flowers and hearts set on the diagonal, a gleaming dollar sign, a light blue duck, an alligator with a grin, a set of geometric forms, a totem that spells GRATEFUL, and a Tulip Sculptural Chair. What ties them together is MLB’s stated aim: art with a sense of life. Bright color drawn from nature, rhythmic pattern, and familiar symbols are arranged to deliver warmth first, and sophistication on closer look. Across these 15 featured listings, recognition is only the beginning. Look closer & the edges, folds, repeated patterns and assembled surfaces become as compelling as the subjects themselves. His work makes a quiet argument: joy is a serious artistic subject, and humble materials can carry it.
The Artist’s Creative Approach
Michael Bronspigel was born in New York City, raised in Nassau County, and spent childhood summers in the Hamptons with his family. He credits the light of Amagansett and the East End’s gallery scene with first drawing him to art. After college and graduate school, he built a successful commercial real estate practice. In 2017 he turned to fine art, inspired by Chris Kohen at Victor D’Amico’s Art Barge in Amagansett — a fitting East End origin story. His medium is mixed media built from household products, with duct tape at its core. Layer by layer, the tape is pressed, folded, and sculpted until an industrial material becomes something warm and personal. He draws his colors from nature, and the Hebrew symbol Chai — meaning life — appears often in his work.
His recurring themes
- Flowers, Hearts & Stars — nature and affection in bold, radiating color.
- American Woman — stylized, sensual figure studies.
- Dollar Sign — the U.S. dollar as pop icon.
- Patriotic — red, white, and blue with a sense of humor.
- Chai Life, Horizons & Interactive — meaning, landscape, and works that invite participation.
A Closer Look at the Featured Works
The fifteen works fall into five groups, moving from the wall into full three dimensions. The selection moves from figures and framed compositions into flowers, animal forms, geometric structures and objects that occupy the room. Each offers a different way to experience MLB’s relationship between color, outline and surface.
Part I · The American Woman
Three portraits of reclining and stretching blue figures belong to MLB’s American Woman theme — sensual, relaxed, and drawn with a cartoonist’s economy.
Laid Back Nude: The Long, Slow Stretch
Mixed media · Listed at $5,150
A blue figure lifts both arms overhead, creating a long, open arc against a gold-toned setting. Silver visor-like eyewear, red lips and a strand of white beads give the figure a distinctly styled presence. A sweeping American-flag pattern around the head adds movement, while the curved chair back anchors the scene. At the left, short pink, orange, yellow and green marks animate a silver-colored field. Their busy rhythm makes the broad blue body feel especially composed. The tension between the extended pose and the relaxed expression gives Laid Back Nude its character: an image of ease with an unexpectedly theatrical silhouette.
- Pose: A blue figure lifts her arms into an arch above a tilted head — poised between rest and a stretch.
- Contrast: Broad, even blue on the body meets patterned, outward-sweeping hair and a golden field behind.
- Movement: At the left, a dense band of pink, yellow, and green marks adds a second rhythm; a curved chair back anchors the scene at home.
Interpretation: Ease, freedom, and self-possession — a portrait of someone entirely comfortable in her own skin.
Blue Nude Lounging: An Interior Full of Pattern
Mixed media · Listed at $9,785
In Blue Nude Lounging, the horizontal format follows the figure’s reclining body across a pink surface. The torso remains lifted on straight arms, bringing an alert, self-possessed quality to the pose. A long bead necklace and flag-patterned detail around the head provide small-scale ornament against the larger blue silhouette. The room is equally active. A yellow band crosses the wall, a framed palm-tree scene hangs above, and a striped foreground form enters from the lower left. These competing patterns compress the interior into overlapping planes. The result balances the intimacy of a domestic scene with the clarity of a graphic composition.
- Setting: A reclining blue figure stretches across a pink surface in a patterned interior.
- Details: Patterned hair frames the face, and a long necklace leads the eye down the upright torso.
- Depth: Bands of yellow and gray divide the wall, where framed pictures add pictures-within-the-picture; a striped form in the foreground pulls the room toward you.
Interpretation: A modern odalisque — the classic reclining figure of art history, retold in candy-bright color.
Diamond Blue Nude: The Figure on Its Point
Mixed media, diamond format · Listed at $14,935
The diamond orientation immediately unsettles the usual horizontal and vertical boundaries of a figure study. A blue body turns through fields of turquoise, lavender, yellow and pink, while the flag-patterned form around the head extends outward in pointed waves. The most distinctive detail sits in the foreground: silver-gray and pink sections visibly fold away from the picture’s surface. The figure’s hand meets a narrow green-and-pink edge, linking the depicted gesture to the projecting material. Diamond Blue Nude therefore asks the eye to move between representation and physical construction. Its depth comes from both the arrangement of color and the surface itself.
- Format: The square is turned onto its point, giving the image lift and a sense of upward motion.
- Geometry: Angular fields of gray, pink, yellow, purple, and blue surround the figure’s soft, curved silhouette.
- Accent: A narrow green stroke near the hands echoes the diamond’s own diagonals.
Interpretation: The most ambitious of the three figures, where MLB’s love of geometry and his love of the figure meet head-on.
Part II · Diamonds, Hearts & a Dollar
Three wall works take familiar symbols — a flower, a heart, a dollar sign — and give them weight, shimmer, and geometric tension.
Diamond Flower: A Bloom on the Diagonal
Mixed media, diamond format · Listed at $2,575
Five broad pink petals surround a densely curled gold-colored center in Diamond Flower. Pale triangular accents direct attention inward, while a darker, sparkling pink layer creates a second rhythm behind the main petals. Small bright-green rectangles interrupt the deeper green ground. The square, displayed on its point, provides a firm geometric boundary for this rounded bloom. That contrast gives the work its balance: the flower expands, while the diamond contains it. Changes between smooth, glittering and tightly gathered surfaces make the familiar floral emblem a study in how texture can organize attention.
- Center: A bold pink blossom spreads in overlapping petals around a textured golden heart.
- Depth: Darker pink circles behind the petals repeat the curves and push the flower forward.
- Ground: Variations in the green background suggest leaves and shade.
Interpretation: The rounded flower against the pointed diamond is a small drama of soft versus sharp — nature held in a geometric frame.
Diamond Heart: Love, Radiating
Mixed media, diamond format · Listed at $9,785
Diamond Heart develops a simple red center into an elaborate sequence of nested shapes. Gold and black outlines give way to a striped turquoise field, a purple band with a pleated appearance, narrow bright borders and a scalloped blue edge. Behind them, the red diamond ground carries pronounced folds and wrinkles. Each band changes the pace of looking. Vertical stripes steady the center, radiating purple marks push outward, and the scalloped perimeter softens the boundary. The recognizable heart keeps this accumulation legible. It can be read as affection gathering complexity through repetition, with surface and color doing the expressive work.
- Structure: A red heart with a golden border sits at the center of nested bands of green, blue, pink, and purple.
- Rhythm: Fine stripes animate each band, so energy seems to pulse outward from the heart.
- Boundary: A red square turned on its point contains it all, setting the heart’s softness against a crisp edge.
Interpretation: A familiar symbol turned into a study of repetition — affection as something that keeps expanding.
Original Blue, Gold, Silver Dollar Sign: A Pop Icon in Gold
Mixed media · Listed at $5,150
MLB’s dollar signs are among his signature works. According to the artist’s site, Steve Forbes said he preferred MLB’s U.S. dollar sign over Andy Warhol’s famous dollar painting. An oversized dollar sign nearly fills a saturated blue field. Its sweeping curve, rounded terminals and two slender vertical strokes give the composition immediate authority. Close inspection reveals smaller gold- and silver-colored patterned patches within the emblem, while irregular overlaps animate the blue ground. The contrast between instant recognition and detailed construction is central to the work. From a distance, the symbol reads in a moment; nearby, its surface asks for time. Original Blue, Gold, Silver Dollar Sign opens a possible conversation about value, attraction and aspiration without depending on a single prescribed interpretation.
- Form: A sweeping golden dollar sign fills a deep blue field, its curves crossed by slender vertical lines.
- Shimmer: Silver-toned details and variations across the gold create a patterned surface that rewards close looking.
- Hierarchy: The limited palette does the work: blue recedes, gold advances.
Interpretation: A symbol of value, made valuable — MLB’s cheerful nod to art, pop culture, and business all at once.
Part III · Flowers & Magic Mushrooms
Three small sculptures — each listed at $360.50 — offer the most playful and accessible way to start a collection.
Blue & White Flower: A Starburst in Bloom
Flower sculpture · Listed at $360.50
Long turquoise-blue petals alternate with magenta forms around a lighter inner ring in Blue & White Flower. White petals bring the center forward, while short orange and pink accents lead toward a clustered gold-colored core. The pointed outer silhouette gives the sculpture an expansive, almost spinning energy. Overlapping petals establish real depth, and visible seams and ridges keep the surface tactile. The white layer is especially effective: it separates the crowded outer colors and gives the eye a clear route inward. Here, floral symmetry becomes a framework for changes in texture, projection and color.
- Form: Long, pointed blue, white, and pink petals radiate from a golden center like a starburst.
- Depth: Rings of petals let some colors advance while others sit behind; short red accents pulse near the heart.
- Texture: Variations in surface texture catch the light as you move.
Interpretation: Energetic and crisp — the cooler, spikier sibling of the pink and lavender bloom.
Pink & Lavender Flower: Soft Petals, Golden Heart
Flower sculpture · Listed at $360.50
Pink & Lavender Flower offers a softer contour than its blue-and-white counterpart. Broad pink outer petals open around a lavender layer, with smaller magenta petals gathered close to the gold-colored center. Slender yellow accents extend from the core like stylized stamens. The overlapping edges and glossy, visibly joined surfaces give the bloom its dimensional character. Lavender creates a pause between the stronger pinks, allowing the layers to remain distinct. Rather than relying on botanical realism, the sculpture builds its appeal through proportion: generous outer petals, a more compact interior and a textured center that holds the arrangement together.
- Layers: Broad pink outer petals open to a softer lavender layer, then magenta forms around a clustered golden core.
- Volume: Lifted edges and textured surfaces give the bloom fullness and subtle shifts of light and shadow.
Interpretation: Where the blue flower bursts, this one gently unfolds — a small sculpture with a calm, circular rhythm.
Michael’s Magic Mushrooms: Six Colorways, One Imaginary Forest
Sculpture, available in 6 colorways · Listed at $360.50
Rounded caps and tapered stems provide the shared structure for Michael’s Magic Mushrooms, presented in six colorways. Pink, blue, white, green and orange-red caps meet stems carrying markedly different patterns, from blue-and-white geometric detail to sweeping multicolored curves and a rainbow-like band. The broad caps act as visual anchors, allowing the narrower stems to carry the more intricate designs. Repetition makes the differences easy to appreciate: a change in pattern can shift the character of an otherwise familiar form. Together, the variations suggest an invented miniature landscape, shaped by surface, color and a sense of play.
- Form: Rounded caps in pink, blue, orange, green, and pale tones sit on slender stems wrapped in lively patterns.
- Variety: Floral motifs, swirls, and graphic details make every colorway distinct.
- Display: Grouped together, they become a miniature imagined landscape.
Interpretation: Woodland forms reimagined as characters — whimsical proof that pattern and color can make the familiar feel magical.
Part IV · Patriotic Creatures
MLB’s patriotic theme takes a playful turn in two animal sculptures dressed in bold color.
USA Duck: Red, White, Blue — and Quack
Sculpture · Listed at $2,060
The rounded blue body and orange bill of USA Duck Sculpture establish a toy-like familiarity. A large black-and-white eye supplies expression, while repeated American flags cover the crest and sections of the wings. Dark-blue wing accents sharpen the contrast with the lighter body. Small overlapping surface sections follow the duck’s curves, turning a simple silhouette into a visibly constructed object. The flag motif works at two levels: recognizable imagery from a distance and a dense arrangement of stripes and stars close up. The sculpture’s humor comes from that meeting of an everyday character and an unexpectedly elaborate skin.
- Silhouette: A rounded light blue body and orange bill recall the familiar bath-time toy.
- Pattern: Red, white, and blue patterned accents on the crest and wing bring stars-and-stripes energy.
- Motion: The upturned tail and forward bill suggest a duck about to set off.
Interpretation: Pure joy in sculptural form — and, for an artist who works in tape, perhaps a sly wink at the material itself.
Alligator USA: A Mischievous Showpiece
Sculpture · Listed at $5,150
Alligator USA Sculpture stretches its composition along a low body and tapering tail. Deep-blue legs and flanks meet turquoise patches, while repeated American flags cover the upper surface. Gold-colored ridges, yellow eyes and white teeth add sharp accents to the cooler palette. The long back acts as a route through the work: pattern gathers over the head and torso before narrowing toward the tail. Open jaws and splayed feet preserve the animal’s recognizable energy. Yet the bright surface treatment changes its mood, allowing the alligator to appear mischievous and theatrical while retaining the force of its silhouette.
- Color: Electric blue legs and turquoise flanks replace natural camouflage with exuberant color.
- Pattern: Dense pink, red, and yellow detailing runs along the back.
- Character: An open mouth with bared teeth adds a theatrical, mischievous presence; the sculpture changes from every angle.
Interpretation: A creature usually meant to intimidate, transformed into something you want to walk around and smile at.
Part V · Sculpture, Symbol & Seat
The final four works push MLB’s practice fully into three dimensions — from abstract geometry to a word you can stand upright and a chair you can sit in.
Geometric Colorful Set of 6: Duct Tape, Weight & Air
Duct tape sculptures, set of 6 · Listed at $7,725
Triangular profiles and polygonal loops bring pink, turquoise, orange, yellow, blue and gold tones into an angular conversation. Broad side planes give the forms substance; open interiors keep them visually light. Their different proportions establish a rhythm of narrow edges, expansive faces and enclosed space. The visible seams soften the apparent precision of the geometry, preserving evidence of assembly. Across this six-piece grouping, color helps distinguish each form before the eye follows its turns and openings. The work demonstrates how an abstract sculpture can remain approachable through clear shapes and an immediately readable relationship between surface and space.
- Forms: Angular loops, rectangular frames, and pointed volumes in pink, turquoise, orange, yellow, gold, and silver.
- Solid and open: Some pieces enclose empty space, others present solid planes — an exchange between weight and lightness.
- Surface: Textured surfaces soften the geometry’s precision, letting small irregularities show the hand.
Interpretation: Six pieces that can be arranged and rearranged — abstraction that invites participation.
Reddit Upvote/Downvote: Digital Reactions Made Solid
Set of 2 sculptures · Listed at $4,635
This set of two sculptures translates the title’s online vocabulary into blue and orange-red arrow forms. Thick edges establish volume, while open centers allow the surrounding space to become part of each shape. Dark side faces emphasize the difference between a colored front and a physical object. The opposing directions and warm-versus-cool palette create an immediate visual exchange. With their centers removed, the arrows also act as frames, directing attention through themselves. Reddit Upvote/Downvote can be read as a playful reconsideration of how quickly a simple symbol communicates approval, disagreement or choice.
- Opposition: A turquoise-and-blue upper form meets a red-orange lower one, their sharp turns suggesting arrows pointing opposite ways.
- Space: Open centers let the surrounding room become part of the work; dark edges emphasize depth.
- Color: Cool against warm sets up a strong visual tension.
Interpretation: The internet’s simplest verdict — up or down — turned into a physical object to live with.
Grateful Totem: A Word to Stand By
Vertical wood totem · Listed at $5,665
Bright-pink letters spell GRATEFUL down a slender wooden column, set against bands of blue, turquoise and pale color. The letters project visibly from their backing, giving language both depth and shadow. The narrow proportions make reading a vertical movement rather than a quick horizontal glance. Vertical Wood Grateful Totem introduces a quieter form of directness into the collection. Its message is immediately accessible, but its structure slows the encounter, letter by letter. Viewers may experience it as a personal reminder, an affirmation or simply a study in how typography can become a sculptural presence.
- Text: The word GRATEFUL unfolds downward in pink letters, one character at a time along a slim column.
- Ground: Dark areas and bands of blue, green, and pale color keep the eye engaged as it reads.
- Proportion: The slender, upright form turns reading into a measured journey.
Interpretation: A daily reminder with a steady, declarative presence — in keeping with an artist whose work keeps returning to life and thankfulness.
Original Colorful Sculptural Chair: Furniture as Sculpture
Sculptural chair · Listed at $25,750
The collection’s centerpiece is also its most functional form. A curved chair shell becomes a continuous field of hot pink, interrupted by paired white teardrop shapes outlined in blue, green and yellow. Bright-green legs and crossing supports extend the palette beneath the seat. The familiar furniture form gives the color an immediate physical presence. The patterned surface follows the shell’s bends, so its arrangement changes as the viewer moves from front to back. Small overlapping sections produce a mosaic-like rhythm across the pink. Original Colorful Sculptural Chair brings the exhibition’s interest in outline and ornament into three dimensions, making the relationship between decoration and structure unusually direct.
- Shell: Pink covers the rounded seat, its visibly layered surface broken by paired white teardrop forms edged in turquoise, green, and yellow.
- Base: Vivid green legs and crossing supports lift the shell and contrast with the pink above.
- In the round: Front and back offer different arrangements, so the chair reads as sculpture from every side.
Interpretation: Organic movement flowing over a familiar piece of furniture — the line between art and design simply disappears.
Connections Across the Works
Fifteen works, five groups, one unmistakable sensibility. Repetition gives this varied collection its cohesion. Petals gather into blooms; colored bands expand around a heart; small flags accumulate across figures and animal forms. The repeated unit changes, but the effect is consistent: simple elements build surfaces with their own rhythm. Another connection is the movement between flat imagery and physical depth. The dollar sign uses a strong silhouette, the diamond nude brings folded material forward, and the chair carries pattern around a curved shell. The open geometric sculptures go further, giving the surrounding space an active role in their structure. The differences matter just as much. The blue figures offer scenes and gestures; the animals introduce character and humor; the arrows make a contemporary symbol tangible; the totem asks viewers to linger over a word. Together, they show how Bronspigel can keep a recognizable visual language while changing the kind of encounter each work offers.
- Humble material, high spirits. Whether a wall work or a sculpture, the surfaces are layered, textured, and built by hand — and the duct tape sculptures show how far an everyday material can travel.
- The diamond as signature. Diamond Blue Nude, Diamond Flower, and Diamond Heart all turn the square onto its point, setting soft subjects against sharp geometry.
- Symbols we already love. Hearts, flowers, a dollar sign, a rubber-duck silhouette, social-media arrows, a word of thanks — MLB starts from shared visual language and makes it personal.
- From wall to room. The collection moves from flat to dimensional: wall works, small sculptures, freestanding animals, abstract sets you can rearrange, and finally a chair.
- Many ways in. Listed prices run from $360.50 for a flower or mushroom to $25,750 for the sculptural chair.
- A sense of life. Gratitude, love, ease, and play recur throughout — the “happy art” for which he has become known.
In MLB’s hands, the most ordinary roll in the toolbox becomes a way of saying something generous.
See MLB in Person
Texture is half the story here. Up close, you can see the layering, folding, and shaping that photographs flatten — and walk all the way around the duck, the alligator, and the chair. The full collection is on view at The HUB during A New Beginning.
Location: The HUB, 2183 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, NY 11932
Hours: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., closed Tuesdays
Admission: Complimentary
Inquire About MLB Artwork →
Explore the Full Collection →
The collection at a glance
- Laid Back Nude $5,150
- Blue Nude Lounging $9,785
- Diamond Blue Nude $14,935
- Diamond Flower $2,575
- Diamond Heart $9,785
- Original Blue, Gold, Silver Dollar Sign $5,150
- Blue & White Flower $360.50
- Pink & Lavender Flower $360.50
- Michael’s Magic Mushrooms $360.50
- USA Duck $2,060
- Alligator USA $5,150
- Geometric Colorful Set of 6 $7,725
- Reddit Upvote/Downvote $4,635
- Grateful Totem $5,665
- Original Colorful Sculptural Chair $25,750
Learn more about the artist at mlbartist.com.