MICHELE FLETCHER

Drawing inspiration from her garden, Fletcher reflects on themes of growth, decay, and transformation in oil-on-panel. Works that reverberate with energy thanks to her distinctive dynamic brushwork and use of vibrant colour.

Fletcher’s creative process is closely informed by the visual and emotional impressions she gathers from the plants she grows and tends to, with each painting embodying a fluid connection to the environment, inviting viewers to reflect on the impermanence and vitality of life.

Early Years and Education

Born in Ontario, Canada, in 1963, Fletcher currently lives and works in London, UK. She earned a BA in Fine Art and Critical Theory from Goldsmiths College, London, in 2003 and completed her MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, in 2007.

Fletcher has received multiple awards, including the Neville Burston Award for Painting from Goldsmiths in 2003 and the inaugural Marmite Prize for Painting in 2006. She was also awarded a Royal Overseas League Scholarship, which led to a residency at Hospitalfield, Scotland, through the Patrick Allan Fraser Trust. In 2020, her work Compost was a prize winner in the John Moores Painting Prize.

Artworks

Intuitive and gestural, Fletcher’s canvases reflect the light, colour, and form of her immediate surroundings. Her influences range from the floral imagery of the early Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli to the modern abstractions of Georgia O’Keeffe and Joan Mitchell. Much like the act of tending to a garden, Fletcher’s painterly approach involves composing and manipulating materials to create a unified whole that emphasizes the profound connections between human existence and the natural world.

Exhibitions

Fletcher has participated in both solo and group exhibitions. Her solo presentations include Patricia Fleming Gallery at NADA Miami, USA, Between a Flutter and a Fold, Tiger Gallery, London (2023), and A Season Away from Yesterday, Liliya Gallery, London (2022).

In 2024, her group exhibitions have included: If Not Now, When? at Patricia Fleming Gallery, Glasgow, UK; Blue Hour at Phillips, New York, USA; and It Rose and It Fell at Terrace, London.

In January 2025, she will present her work in a solo exhibition at White Cube in Hong Kong as part of Inside the White Cube, a series highlightings non-represented artists who are driving global developments in contemporary art and exhibiting with the gallery for the first time

Collections

Fletcher’s artworks are featured in both public and private collections, including Isaac Newton Institute, University of Cambridge, UK; University of the Art, London; Ernst & Young Collection; and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London.

Nevena Bojinovic | Ocula | 2024