MICHAEL VALE . BIO & CV
Michael Vale works with painting, installation and video. He has also worked as a TV writer, scenery painter, cartoonist, interior designer, and art administrator. He is currently employed as a senior lecturer (Painting and Film) at Monash University, and has also taught at RMIT and the Hong Kong Art School. He was the inaugural director of Linden Contemporary Art Centre in St Kilda, and also co-renovated the Ghost Train at Luna Park.
Michael believes in the absurdist philosophy that the universe is irrational, and therefore the pursuit of rationality is at odds with the universe. His work is therefore at odds with narrative logic and invites the viewer to visit the zone between inner and outer experience.
Recent solo exhibitions have included Time Traveller (Despard Gallery, Hobart 2019), The Transit of Mercury (Anna Pappas Gallery 2016), The Umbelliferous Portraits (with Nicholas Ives, Rubicon Artspace 2015), The Conquest of Space (Five Walls Projects 2013), Lamplike (Trocadero Artspace 2012), Untitled (green) (Screenspace 2011), The Innocents (with Donna McRae, Westspace 2011).
Recent group exhibitions have included Word of Mouth (cur. Peter Hill, Venice pop up show, 2019), The Archibald Prize 2019 (AGNSW), Parallel Universe (cur. Felicity Spear, Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, 2019), The Museum of Platitudes and Aphorisms (cur, Phil Edwards, C3, 2019), Beyond Reason (cur. Kevin Wilson, QUT, Queensland, 2018), Gothic Beauty (cur. Jessica Bridgfoot, Bendigo Art Gallery, 2018), Art Athina (Athens, Greece, 2018), Dark (Other) Times (cur. Paul Zika / Maria Kundis, Dark Mofo / Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, 2018), Romancing the Skull (cur. Julie McLaren / Gordon Morrison, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 2017), Slippery Stories (cur. MV and Tom Dunn, Durden & Ray, Los Angeles / Strange Neighbour 2016), Dada Here & Now (cur. Hanna Regev & Matt McKinley, San Francisco Arts Festival 2016), Authenticity? (cur. Richard Ennis, Incinerator Gallery 2016), The Museum of Doubt (cur. Peter Hill, Despard Gallery Hobart 2016), A Window that Isn't There (cur. MV, Strange Neighbour 2014), Whistling in the Dark (cur. MV, Trocadero Artspace 2014), As If (cur. Pater Hill, Kings Ari 2014), The Archibald Prize (AGNSW 2012), Museums in the Incident (cur. Steven Rendall, Monash Faculty Gallery 2012), Beautiful Volcanoes (cur. MV, Monash Faculty Gallery 2011).