Alan Michael ́s paintings and drawings recall works made by adolescents who fastidiously reproduce images of their idols in pencils and paint on paper. Michael ́s works however draw from a more idiosyncratic canon, framing unlikely succession of figures to create a variety of fantasy groupings.
Michael is interested in the ways in which other industries such as advertising, cinema ans design adapt iconic images freely and unselfconsciously. In his attempts to apply a similarly free approach to his work Michael has composed complex images in different styles and media utilizing figures appropriated from works by an eclectic mixture of twentieth century figurative painters including Balthus, Lucien Freud, Modigliani and Phillip Pearlstein. Such works recall in some way Paul Thek ́s Television Analyzations (1963).
While the “mechanical eyes“ that distort culture fascinated Thek, Michael ́s interest lies in the wider distortion of received ideas of cultural heritage as he revitalizes overexposed, familiar imagery.
Alan Michael (Scottish, b. 1967 in Glasgow) lives and works in London.
He has had solo exhibitions at Le Bourgeois, London (2019); Cell Project Space, London and Jan Kaps, Cologne (both 2018); FOAM LONDON, London and Galeria Zero, Milan (both 2014); High Art, Paris (2014); OHIO, Glasgow (2013); Tate Britain, as part of Art Now, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinbourgh (2008) and at Galerie Schürmann, Berlin (2008).
Michael ́s work has been included in a number of international groupshows, as for example at The Function Suite, London (2020); Arcadia Missa, London (2019); Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Christian Andersen, Copenhagen and Jan Kaps, Cologne (all in 2018); The British Council / Aram Art Gallery, Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Centre, South Korea; HIGH ART, Paris; The British Council / Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland and Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham (all in 2017); 1001 44th Rd Long Island City, New York; Le Bourgeois, London and The British Council / CAC Vilnius, Lithuania (all in 2016); Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zürich; Stems, Brussels; Micky Schubert, Berlin (all in 2015); Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich; Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (both 2014); Fiorucci Art Trust, Stromboli (2013); Circa Projects, Newcastle Upon-Tyne (2013); Cubitt, London (2013); ReMap 4 in Athens (2013) and Fremantle arts Centre, Australia (2012). Previous notable group shows have been at CPAC, Bordeaux (2010); Dundee Contemporary Arts (2009+2001); The Drawing Room, London (2009); Tate Triennal at Tate Britain (2006) and Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (solo 2000) among many others.
He released a publication,’Unlawful Assembly’ with Lucy Mckenzie, published by Koenig books and launched at Maggs Bros. London, following their exhibition ’Note to Self’ at Artists Institute, New York (2013).