Mark Michael

As an artist seeking catharsis and connection, I like to view my paintings as mirror objects that begin life as an honest as possible conversation with myself, in the hope that through interpretation the viewer can intimately engage with the compositions on their own terms. The more authentic I am with my work, the more I believe the viewer will relate to it.

In my latest body of work, I use cryptic, often surreal imagery, symbols and word art to give form and substance to the invisible emotional self that lurks behind the persona. My psychological portraits are confessions of sorts, helping me to cultivate a relationship with the unconventional and imperfect beings, untethered to gender, colour and age, that reveal themselves on the canvas. While the act of creation I consider to be a cathartic exercise, I endeavour to keep my personal circumstances of time and place absent from the canvas. In their place I apply blocks of colour to create abstract hinterlands on which I juxtapose the masked figures, ciphers and handwritten text that often co-exist on the canvas in precarious equilibrium.

United Kingdom