About Mike Edwards

Mike Edwards is an established artist, well known for his portraits made of text. New bodies of work show Edwards evolving from his recognised style, developing an increasingly sophisticated approach to painting. Some works retain a typographic aesthetic, whilst others incorporate painted neon, abstract expressionism and traditional landscape painting to produce a complex and energetic dialogue between the old and the new.

Edwards has exhibited extensively, including four solo shows, and his work is in collections around the world, including those of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Imelda May, and the late publisher Felix Dennis. David Bowie signed Edwards’ unique typographic portrait of Aladdin Sane - which went on to raise phenomenal funds for charity at auction. His portrait of Lord Attenborough is on permanent display at The Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, University of Sussex. Edwards' work was also included in Gilles Peterson's book 'Broadcasting in a Pandemic', a cultural documentation of a year in lockdown.

An exceptional painter, Edwards started out as a professional artisan artist before developing his own body of work. Projects included a stage set for rock band Blur and producing commissioned artworks for Bacardi, Budweiser and Urban Outfitters.

Edwards continues to push boundaries in new paintings currently in progress in his studio in central Brighton.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

As in nature, I’m looking for a fine balance in my paintings. My work is in a constant state of flux, and continues to evolve through a variety of styles and experiments.

My paintings consider space, both pictorial and illusionary, light, both natural and man-made, and energy, both painterly and contained.

I feel that paintings, with their physicality and their physical presence are the closest thing humans have made to a natural element that can communicate the intangible or the metaphysical. That an emotional or cerebral reaction in the viewer can be caused by simply looking at a painting is extraordinary, and is key to why I choose this medium.

I’m fascinated how a painting can retain the energy of its creation and transmit it back to the viewer, whether it’s by expressive marks or brushstrokes or whether it's in controlled geometric shapes.

I’m a fan of optical magic, from the earliest examples of tromp l’oeil in Greek murals, through to contemporary street art. I like to play with the illusion of space on the picture surface, using pictorial devices to suggest receding distances, or drop-shadows to simulate objects breaking through the canvas to occupy the space of the viewer.

Light and colour is also intensely studied in my paintings. Often, painted images teeter, or hang, between light and dark tones. I use fluorescent pigments in many of my recent paintings, specifically to simulate neon light. I strive to strike a balance between these ultra-brilliant hues and regular colours, and blend traditional processes with contemporary materials.

From this journey of exploration and experimentation, the next phase of my artistic development is to work in a more intuitive, organic and immediate way, and to work more in nature and with nature.

Education: 

BA[Hons] Fine Art Birmingham Institute of Art & Design. UK.

Selected Exhibitions: 

’Skull-Huggery’ - Stolen Space Gallery, London, Nov 2024
Artist in Residence - Cycladic Arts, Paros, Greece Oct 2024
’What A Waste’ - Koppell Project, London, Nov 2022
’Sound and Vision’ - Enter Gallery, March 2022
’One Love’ - Saatchi Gallery, London, Feb 2022
’ArtYard’ - Enter Gallery, Brighton, Oct 2021
’50 x 50’ Auction Collective, London, Nov 2020
‘New Beginnings’ - Enter Gallery, Brighton, Dec 2019
'Black Fireworks' - SOLO SHOW - Phoenix Art Space, Brighton 2019
’Mixed Originals’ - Enter Gallery, Brighton, May 2019
'ArtYard' - Artrepublic, Brighton 2018
'TEXT ME' - SOLO SHOW, The Contemporary, Manchester. Oct 2017
'Art Block' - Truman Gallery, London Oct 2016
'Open' - Phoenix Gallery, Brighton May 2016
'Hibernate' - Hang Up Gallery, London 2015
'Layered Details' - Galleri GEO - Norway - Oct 2015
'TYPO' - SOLO SHOW - The Contemporary Gallery, Chester 2015
Underground OH - Brush Gallery, Brighton 2015
Hang Up Collections Vol III - Hang Up Gallery, London 2015
Celebrity - Brush Gallery, Brighton 2015
A3 - Phoenix Gallery, Brighton 2014
Group Show - The Contemporary, Chester 2014
One Alfred - Store Street Gallery, London 2014
MOA - Monsters of Art Gallery, London 2014
Pink Pop - Red Hand Gallery, London 2014
Pop Typographica - Frame Factory Gallery, Brighton 2013
Synergy - Store Street Gallery, London 2013
Group Show - George Thornton Art, Nottingham 2013
Affordable Art Fair - Hampstead, The Barker Gallery 2012
Diversity In Style - Olyvia Fine Art, London 2012
Brighton Rocks - Future Gallery, London 2012
Icons - Store Street Gallery, London 2012
The Grand Art Fair - The Barker Gallery 2012
Buy Art Fair - ArtRepublic, Manchester 2012
Sound and Vision - Cancer Research, London 2011
Pop Sphere - Sphere Gallery, London 2011
Pop Now - O Contemporary, Brighton 2009
Affordable Art Fair - Bristol 2008
’LEXIGRAPHICA’ - SOLO SHOW - Chameleon Gallery, Brighton 2005

Collections: 

Selected private collectors include

Sir Bradley Wiggins
Imelda May
Felix Dennis
Roger Taylor
Christian Mathews
Zoe Ball
Robert Lyndsay
Chris Foreman

Commissions: 

Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts Brighton, a portrait of Lord Attenborough commissioned by University of Sussex, created from the names of philanthropic donors. 

Budweiser - development of an ‘Art’ strand for Budweiser global Brand Visual Identity. 

Bacardi - commissioned to create visual images made of the brand’s distinctive ‘bat’ logo. 

Mars Chocolate - commissioned to create a digital interactive art experience around earlier pixel-based work - resulting in the ‘M&M’s Picture Creator’. 

David Bowie signed Mike’s unique portrait of Bowie entitled ‘I Wrote a Picture For You’ which went on to sell for £22,000 in aid of Cancer Research. 

Urban Outfitters - in 2008 Mike created 4,000 unique hand-made interactive art products for the global retailer. 

Legendary publisher Felix Dennis commissioned a portrait of himself made from one of his poems ‘Glass Half Full’.

Publications: 

Mike’s work has been published worldwide by Rosenstiels Fine Art and Pyramid International and includes one of UK design store Habitat’s best selling images. 

Mike’s street portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi is featured in a short film on Brighton Graffiti by film-maker Conrad Brunner.

See a collection of my works on display in central Brighton here: