Michael Cartwright – Bio

Artist, Australian, Born 1959

Michael Francis Cartwright is used to his freedom.  His art is the voice of freedom.  His work, whether it is sculpture or painting or drawing or printmaking, has always been that way. He alternates between inventive delightful play, where what he makes is a quirky reference to life, to serious tough and uncompromising judgement on man and nature, and then to pure luscious sensuousness when only the colour matters or forms and textures are created to abstractly convey beauty. His work is not sequential.  He doesn’t care that the work is not sequential.  It is the freedom of being that counts in his work and in his personal life, a life that also declares his freedom.  His philosophy is about a journey in life that is inspired and connected to his inner yearnings  to grow as a creator.     Despite the several nuances of his nature, Cartwright over the years has developed his own signature that defines his work as his own,   “I create in an attempt to destroy personal borders.”  Now Cartwright lives in the Tuscan hills beyond Lucca.  He paints in his studio on the green Lima River in Bagni di Lucca and goes to his studio in Pietrasanta where he carves marble or casts his work in bronze.

Exhibitions

  • 2014
    Sandra Walters exhibition at the Sai Kung and Aberdeen, HK
    Sandra Walters Consultancy exhibition, HK
    La Rondine Gallery, Drawing exhibition with Shona Nunan
    La Rondine Gallery, group exhibition
  • 2013
    La Rondine Gallery Pop Up Exhibition, Sheung Wan Art Precinct, Hong Kong
    La Rondine Gallery, Tuscany, Italy
  • 2012 La Rondine Gallery, Tuscany, Italy
  • 2010 Gallicano, Tuscany, Italy
  • 2009 Gallicano, Tuscany, Italy
  • 2008 Gallicano, Tuscany, Italy
  • 2004 Art 2 Gallery, Mita Building, Singapore
  • 2001 Art 2 Gallery, Mita Building, Singapore
  • 2001 Sandra Walters – Rotunda, Exchange Square, Hong Kong.
  • 2000 Lindenderry, Red Hill, Australia
  • 2000 Sheraton Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 1999 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France
  • 1997 Sandra Walters, Hong Kong
  • 1997 Ian Rogers, Melbourne, Australia
  • 1997 Fort Canning Park, with the Shona tribe sculptors of Africa. Singapore.
  • 1995 Solander Gallery, ACT, Australia
  • 1995 Art 2 Gallery, Singapore
  • 1994 Meridian Gallery, traveling show to China, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong Art Fair
  • 1994 Meridian Gallery, collaborative exhibition with artist Tony Scott. Vic. Australia
  • 1994 Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Meridian Gallery
  • 1993 Meridian Gallery, Vic. Australia
  • 1992 Qdos Gallery, Lorne, Australia
  • 1992 Castlemaine Gaol, Vic. Australia
  • 1992 Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Meridian Gallery
  • 1991 Alchemy Gallery, Vic. Australia
  • 1990 Castlemaine gaol exhibition, Castlemaine, Australia
  • 1989 Wallace Bros. Gallery, Vic. Australia
  • 1988 Mildura Sculpture Triennial, Vic. Australia
  • 1988 Barossa Sculpture Symposium, SA. Australia
  • 1987 Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney, Australia
  • 1986 Bitumen River Gallery, ACT, Australia
  • 1984 Mildura Sculpture Triennial, Vic. Australia

Artist Residencies

  • 2015 Montsalvat artist in residence, Melbourne Australia
  • 2015 Kunstler Bei Wu, Wesenberg, Germany
  • 2013 Cill Rialaig Art Project, County Kerry, Ireland
  • CIS, Chinese International School Hong Kong
  • 2011 Yew Chung Foundation, Hong Kong.
  • 1999 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France
  • 1998 Cill Rialig Art Project, County Kerry, Ireland
  • 1996 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France
  • 1991 Port Moresby College of Art, PNG
  • 1990 3rd street , New York. USA

Selected commissions and projects

  • 2016 Private commission,‘Fishing Over Uluru’ bronze 250 x 200 cm
  • 2013 Created hand carving marble sculpture symposium, Bagni di Lucca Arts Festival
  • 2011 Yew Chung Foundation, Hong Kong `Setting free the Golden Carp’ 250 x 500cm, painting for the Gallery entrance at Yew Chung, Hong Kong Yew Chung Foundation, Hong Kong
  • ‘Lost in the Cosmos’ 200 x 240cm venetian (smalto) glass mosaic, entrance at Yew Chung, Hong Kong
  • 2010 Goldin Metrolpolis Hotel, Tianjin, China
    ‘Sunset’ 200 x 496cm oil on eight chestnut panels, commissioned for the Presidential suite.
  • 2010 Morgan Stanley, head office-ICC tower, Hong Kong
    `The Bank’, 810cm long, three panels, oil on linen,
  • 2008 Capital M Beijing, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
    `Journey’ 50 meters long x varying heights, (2.2 – 5.4), oil on linen
  • 1999 Singapore Expo building, `Passage’, 5 x 3 x 1.5 meters, bronze, granite and concrete, VIP entrance,
    Private Commission
    ‘Reclining Figure’ black marble on granite, apprx. 200 cm tall by 250cm x 150cm
  • 1997 Grand Plaza Hotel, Singapore
    `Journey’, 2.8 x 2.5 x 1.0 meters, bronze
  • 1996 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France
    A collection of cast bronze and steel sculptures
  • 1993 Private commission
    Memorial sculpture, ‘Boat’.
  • 1988 Sculpture symposium Tanunda, South Australia – donation of large marble sculpture to The local council
  • 1978 Environmental work at Portsea Bay beach, Victoria, Australia. Documented on the front page of `The Herald’, the Melbourne daily newspaper.