Michael Vale is a Melbourne based artist whose work sits at the nexus of Romantic traditions, dark fiction and the delightfully absurd. From this vantage point, Vale’s work shrugs off singular readings of ‘haunting’ or ‘playful’. Instead, his work offers viewers a more complex narrative. Fantasy and reality jostle upon the canvas, creating an intoxicating mise en scene that is delightfully unsettling. His landscapes provide traditional backdrop to his irreverent players, calling upon the visual language of the Romantic sublime. Mountains soar moodily and majestically – nature at its most fearsome and powerful, casting in stark relief the folly of humankind’s confidence and efforts of dominion. Vale’s characters play to this folly and the dark nature of its reveal. Brightly clad and often cartoon-like, Vale sets his eerie figures upon the landscape – skeletons, ghosts and hooded figures. It’s this mix of seriousness and frivolity that typifies the artist’s work, in his own words he says “I find it hard to be too serious. I’m serious about painting, but not necessarily about the content – when it comes to the content I like to have a bit of fun.
Melbourne-based Australian artist Michael Vale is highly celebrated for his idiosyncratic romantic-absurdist style. In 2021 he was a recipient of the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, and has been a finalist in the Archibald prize three times – in 2019, 2013 and 2012. In 2018 he received the Hutchins Australian Contemporary Art Prize and in 2017 won the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize. He has been shortlisted in the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize (2019). In 2006 he was awarded Best Film on Art at the prestigious Asolo Artfilm Festival in northern Italy for his video work, The Long Walk. He was the inaugural director of Linden Contemporary Art Centre in St Kilda, and also co-renovated the Ghost Train at Luna Park.
Michael Vale is a Melbourne based artist whose work sits at the nexus of Romantic traditions, dark fiction and the delightfully absurd. From this vantage point, Vale’s work shrugs off singular readings of ‘haunting’ or ‘playful’. Instead, his work offers viewers a more complex narrative. Fantasy and reality jostle upon the canvas, creating an intoxicating mise en scene that is delightfully unsettling. His landscapes provide traditional backdrop to his irreverent players, calling upon the visual language of the Romantic sublime. Mountains soar moodily and majestically – nature at its most fearsome and powerful, casting in stark relief the folly of humankind’s confidence and efforts of dominion. Vale’s characters play to this folly and the dark nature of its reveal. Brightly clad and often cartoon-like, Vale sets his eerie figures upon the landscape – skeletons, ghosts and hooded figures. It’s this mix of seriousness and frivolity that typifies the artist’s work, in his own words he says “I find it hard to be too serious. I’m serious about painting, but not necessarily about the content – when it comes to the content I like to have a bit of fun.
Melbourne-based Australian artist Michael Vale is highly celebrated for his idiosyncratic romantic-absurdist style. In 2021 he was a recipient of the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, and has been a finalist in the Archibald prize three times – in 2019, 2013 and 2012. In 2018 he received the Hutchins Australian Contemporary Art Prize and in 2017 won the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize. He has been shortlisted in the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize (2019). In 2006 he was awarded Best Film on Art at the prestigious Asolo Artfilm Festival in northern Italy for his video work, The Long Walk. He was the inaugural director of Linden Contemporary Art Centre in St Kilda, and also co-renovated the Ghost Train at Luna Park.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
gromboolian plane, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2022
AbsurdiO, Despard Gallery, Hobart
Morning Came and Went, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
After the Deluge, James Makin Gallery at Melbourne Art Fair
2020
The Guests, Despard Gallery, Hobart
A Clown in the Moon, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2019
Time Traveller, Despard Gallery, Hobart
2016
The Transit of Mercury, Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
2013
The Conquest of Space , Five Walls Projects, Melbourne
2012
Lamplike, Trocadero Artspace, Melbourne
2011
Untitled (green) Screenspace, Melbourne
2009
R.I.P , Linden New Art, Melbourne
2006
Le Chien Qui Fume (a smokey life) , Monash University
Chiengrila , Chapman & Bailey
2005
Le Chien Qui Fume , Westspace, Melbourne
A Smokey Life, TBC art.inc., Melbourne
SELECTED 2 PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2015
The Umbelliferous Portraits (with Nicholas Ives), Rubicon Artspace, Melbourne
2011
The Innocents (with Donna McRae), Westspace, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Contemporary Australian Portraiture, Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Melbourne – forthcoming
Sydney Contemporary, group show presentation by James Makin Gallery, Carriageworks, Sydney
Melbourne Art Fair, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2023
Celebrating 20 Years, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2022
Martin Browne Contemporary at Sydney Contemporary
Don’t say I never warned you, when your train gets lost, cur. Michael Vale, Stockroom, Kyneton and Kingston Arts Centre
Group show, James Makin Gallery
Group show, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
2021
Finalist Exhibition, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (online)
Don’t say I never warned you, when your train gets lost, Stockroom, Kyneton
Chapter Three, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2020
Summer New, James Makin Gallery
Group Show, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
Salon des Refusés, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2019
Feast , Stockroom, Kyneton, Victoria
The Aurther Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo
Shit that I like, Nicholas Projects
Pop-up exhibition curated by Peter Hill, Venice & Grau Projekt
The Archibald Prize , Art Gallery of New South Wales
Parallel Universe , Stephen McLaughlin, Mekbourne
The Museum of Aphorisms , C3, Melbourne
The Nillumbik Art Prize , Montsalvat
2018
Beyond Reason , Queensland University of Technology
Gothic Beauty , Bendigo Art Gallery
Art Athina , Athens, Greece
Dark (Other) Times , Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart
Albany Art Prize , Albany, Western Australia
The Alice Prize , Alice Springs, N.T.
Hutchins Art Prize , Hobart
2017
Romancing the Skull , Art Gallery of Ballarat
Bayside Art Prize , Bayside Gallery, Melbourne
Footscray Art Prize, Footscray Arts Centre, Melbourne
2016
Slippery Stories , Strange Neighbour, Melbourne/ Durden & Ray, Los Angeles
Museum of Doubt , Despard Gallery, Hobart
Animalia , Despard Gallery, Hobart
Authenticity?, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
Dada Here & Now , Fort Mason, San Francisco Arts Festival
Bayside Art Prize , Bayside Gallery, Melbourne
2015
Horror Show , Strange Neighbour, Melbourne/ Gippsland Regional Gallery
Oily Rag , Fort Delta, Melbourne
Decade , Trocadero Artspace, Melbourne
The Umbelliferous Portraits (with Nicholas Ives), Rubicon ARI, Melbourne
Likeness , Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne
2014
Make Believe it’s Nothing , MARS Gallery
A Window That isn’t There , Strange Neighbour
As If , King’s ARI, Melbourne
Whistling in the Dark, Trocadero Artspace
Salon des Refusés , S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2013
The Archibald Prize , Art Gallery of New South Wales
2012
The Archibald Prize , Art Gallery of New South Wales
2011
Beautiful Volcanoes , Monash University Faculty Gallery
The Innocents (with Donna McRae), Westspace, Melbourne
2010
Museums in the Incident, Monash University Faculty Gallery
Underdog , Five Walls Projects, Melbourne
Belleura Works on Paper , Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
Fletcher Jones Art Prize , Geelong Regional Art Gallery
Belleura Works on Paper , Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
Short Play , Thousand £ Bend, Melbourne
2009
Loop 09 , Barcelona Video Festival, Barcelona
Nardini’s Garage , Bassano al Grappa, Italy
VIDEO WORKS
2016
The Transit of Mercury , Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
2015
Lamp People , Durden & Ray, Los Angeles
2014
Augustine , Dada Here & Now, San Francisco
2013
Lamplike, Trocadero Artspace, Melbourne
2011
Untitled (green) , Screenspace, Melbourne
2007
The Servants of the Moon, Linden, St Kilda FF)
2006
The Long Walk , Asolo FF, Westspace, ACP Sydney, Monash University + multiple screenings
2005
The Cheat , TCB, Monash University
2003
Le Chien Qui Fume Asolo FF, St Kilda FF, WOW FF, Monash University
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2016
Slippery Stories, co-curated with Tom Dunn – Durden & Ray, Los Angeles / Strange Neighbour, Melbourne
2014
A window that isn’t there , Strange Neighbour, Melbourne Whistling in the Dark , Trocadero Artspace, Melbourne
2012
Threshold Projects , co-curated with Siri Hayes, Screenspace, Melbourne
2011
Beautiful Volcanoes , Monash University
AWARDS/RESIDENCIES/GRANTS
2021 Winner, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
2018 Hutchins Art Prize, Hobart
2017 Bayside Art Prize
2006 ‘Best Film on Art’, Asolo Artfilm Festival, Italy
Opening Hours
Wednesday–Saturday
12pm–5pm
or by appointment
James Makin Gallery recognises the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the sovereign custodians of the land on which we operate. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.