Androulla Michael (born 1983) is a British award winning and internationally exhibited visual artist, educator and curator of HoME at the Athens Democracy Forum, in association with The New York Times.
She has exhibited in Athens, Brussels, New York, Qatar, Rome, Treviso, Mexico City, Norwich, and in London where her work was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2023 and the ING Discerning Eye exhibition 2023. Her work has been published by Vogue Italia, Storehouse Magazine, Roma Mitica and FABRICA for Wonder Island - Fondazione Imago Mundi. Androulla is the winner of the Brussels Airlines Arts Award, and her work is housed in private and public artcollections.
Michael works across painting, photography and moving image to explore conditions of vulnerability, identity, love, loss, memory and the human condition. Much of Michael’s inspiration is derived from the personal experiences of being a daughter raised in a Greek Cypriot migrant-refugee family; helping her mother escape domestic abuse; and becoming a wife and mother herself through Covid. Strong spiritual and ritualistic references run in the very fibers of her work, which originates from her Eastern Mediterranean cultural upbringing. As her work evolves, she has become interested in approaching these ideas through abstract and conceptual approaches.
Quoting a review of her work My Diary #Selfie of a Nobody (365 Days) by Helen Trompeteler:
“Androulla Michael’s intriguing images challenge historical notions of portraiture by removing any literal likeness of the individual. While Michael’s images are autobiographical in origin, she uses these diaristic images as a means of asking much wider questions concerning societal pressure for perfection or conformism. Where self-portraiture in popular culture often involves a form of social performance, these images are appealing in their abstract and subversive nature.”
BIOGRAPHY
1983 Born, raised in Great Yarmouth, UK
Lives and works in London, UK
EDUCATION
2002-05 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Norwich School of Art
2001-02 Art and Design Foundation Course, Norwich School of Art
EMPLOYMENT
2018 to 2019 - Teacher of Photographyat Ormiston Venture Academy, Oriel Avenue, Gorleston-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth,Norfolk, NR31 7JJ.
Subjects taught: KS3 and GCSE Photography.
2006 to 2017 – Teacher of Fine Artand Photography at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, Church Lane, GreatYarmouth, Norfolk, NR31 7BQ.
Subjects taught: AS/A Level Photography, AS/ALevel Fine Art, GCSE Art, GCSE Photography, Btec Level 2 in Art and Design.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024 - There Is An Island, Cyprus High Commision House, 13 St. James's Square, London
2024 - WHERE THE TREE MEETS THE CROSS at The Crypt Gallery, Norwich
2024 - LOVE Exhibition, curated by Minnie Weisz and Maria Marshall, Y Museum, Mexico City
2023 - ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK
2023 - Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK
2023 - ROMA MITICA, Curated by Minnie Weisz and Paola Frankopan, IL Plebiscito, Rome
2022 HoME, Athens Democracy Forum, in association with The New York Times, Zappeion, Athens
2019 Accessible Art Fair, Bozar, Brussels
2018 'Join the Dots' Luciano Benetton Collection, Fondazione Imago Mundi, Salon deliIncanti, Trieste
2017 Brussels Airlines Likes Art Award, The Loft VIP Lounge, Brussels Airport, Belgium
2016 ‘Art ForTomorrow', sponsored by The New York Times, W Doha Hotel, Qatar
2016 Accessible Art Fair New York, The National Arts Club, Manhattan, New York
2015 Summer Arts Prize, Lacey Contemporary Gallery, London
SCREENING
2014 The Curated Ego: What Makes A Good Selfie? National Portrait Gallery, London
PUBLICATIONS
2023 ROMA MITICA published by Paola Frankopan and Minnie Weisz
2020 A Fictional Walk With Androulla Michael, Norwich University of the Arts, Storehouse Magazine - Together, Together: The Home Issue
2019 WonderIsland – Fondazione Imago Mundi, published by FABRICA
2017 #Selfie of a Nobody (365 days) published by Vogue Italia
AWARDS
2017 Brussels Airlines Likes Art Award
2015 Runner up of The Lacey Contemporary Gallery Summer Arts Prize
COLLECTION
Luciano Benetton