Michael Armstrong

December 29, 2008 by admin

About The Artist

Michael Armstrong was born in Christchurch. He graduated from the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts (Painting Major) in 1976. In 1984 Armstrong was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago, Dunedin. He has twice been a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards. Armstrong has paintings and sculptural works in major public and private collections throughout New Zealand. He has exhibited in Japan, Australia, the UK, the USA and throughout New Zealand. Armstrong is currently the Art Programmes Coordinator at Aoraki Polytechnic and lives in Timaru.

“The wall sculptures may be figurative or abstract and I use painterly techniques on the surfaces to add greater dimension and broader meaning. I use imagery where there is correspondence between the cultural forms; the patterns of computer chips for instance have strong association with my drawing; and the unconscious recognition of pattern inherent in both. The mixture of cultures in this country, in the world, creates hybridisation of art forms, where aspects of each culture may be shared, or the individual sharpness blurred. The looping-like sculptural forms in Taniwha Spits Out Whitey contain ideas derived from Maori art forms and contrasts them with contemporary use of paint and the inward spiral of the indigestible whitey. But they have rubbed off on each other in the battle, so to speak, and the taniwha is bespattered with white while whitey has accepted the commonly accepted colours of Maori art.

 I believe art is an indicator and metaphor for freedom of thought. Art is a conductor for argument and change. Generally speaking art is a useful mirror for society and a tool against prejudice and injustice. Societies can make it dangerous for anyone to step out of line, to be different or to express themselves, Unthinking discrimination is an instinctive reaction, a primitive protection, but no longer appropriate.” Michael Armstrong