Michael Bryan was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1947, and studied at Southern Illinois University, Amonson College, Mayfair College, and the Art Institute in Chicago before going on to graduate study at Elgin College. After a stint in the U.S. Army Special Services from 1969-’71, Bryan returned to art and has had great success, with more than 45 solo exhibitions in locales such as Los Angeles, Palm Beach, and Tokyo. His work appears in numerous prestigious collections; among them, the Salvador Dalí Museum in Tennessee, the Kentucky Derby Museum, and the BMW Museum in Munich, Germany.