Biography
Michelle Wilson is a mixed media artist and art psychotherapist.
She has worked as a studio assistant, a teaching assistant, an art therapist, a social worker, and an advocate for children and young people. She is currently co-running a retreat centre which focuses on ecologically sustainable / regenerative living.
Michelle is interested in art as a powerful change agent which transcends language barriers and conventional ways of understanding problems. Visual representations of complex ideas can offer a shortcut to understanding and connecting with information in a meaningful way. Michelle’s artwork is informed by social and environmental issues and framed by psychoanalytic and philosophical thinking; her work is both conceptual and didactic. She aims to engage viewers emotionally and cognitively to facilitate a process of personal / social change. Michelle believes that the process of making art, and looking at / experiencing art are vital for good mental health, self-awareness, raising social consciousness, and empowering people.
Some of her key art influences are Louis Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Joseph Beuys, Mona Hatoum, Martin Creed, Sue and Tim Webster, Susan Hiller, and the Guerrilla Girls.
Education
- 1996 – BA Studio Art, University of Vermont, USA
- 2004 – MSc Social Policy, London School of Economics
- 2010 – MA Art Psychotherapy, Goldsmiths College, London
Awards & Scholarships
- 1996 – Ian Crawford Memorial Scholarship
Exhibitions
- 2009 – Goldsmiths’ College, “End of Year Exhibition”
- 2010 – Goldsmiths’ College, “Holding Space”
- 2016 – Artistes a Cel Obert, “Va de Bols”
- 2017 – Artistes a Cel Obert, “Toquem Campanes”
- 2017 – Empordoneses, “Smartphones”
- 2018 – Empordoneses, “Aforisme: consideracions estètiques entorn el canvi climàtic” (Visual responses to climate change)
- 2019 – Empordoneses, “La Comunitat”
- 2019 – White Summer, “Consciències Naturals III”
- 2020 – Artistes a Cel Obert, “La Terra i la Dona”
- 2020 – Esquarterades, Terracotta Museu
- 2021 – Empordoneses, “Un estrany en el seu habitat”
- 2022 – Artistes a Cel Obert, “El Mar de Dones”
- 2022 – Tramuntart, XI edició
- 2022 – Empordoneses, “Despertar els clàssics”