Michael Wayne Ransom

Michael Wayne Ransom (1962, Dallas, TX–2009, Bronx, NY) produced miniature models from everyday materials, capturing scenes both invented and from his own life, from tiny diners and amusement parks to sumptuous homes. Of his constructed worlds, Ransom wrote, “miniatures are for me a way of stopping time just long enough to share that moment with someone else.” His tender maquette Remembering...Moments from a Life (1995) memorializes his partner Julio Exavier Leon through the room in which he lived and died. The work was exhibited at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. 

Ransom studied architecture and interior design at the University of Texas at Arlington and Parsons School of Design. Pursuing design professionally after graduation, Ransom produced shop windows for Bergdorf Goodman, Bonwit Teller, and Henri Bendel, later going on to work as a visual manager for Fendi’s New York retail storefronts. He also taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. His environments have been shown at the Tee Ridder Miniatures Museum, Roslyn, New York; Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York; and on NBC’s Today in New York. 

His works are held in private collections, including that of Bill and Hillary Clinton.