ABOUT
Toby Michael (b. 1996), is an Award-Winning Artist based in Oxford.
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​“My paintings explore states of longing and ambiguity. Working through symbolic imagery, cool colour harmonies and figurative narratives, I create spaces that sit between memory and dream, home and distance, the familiar and the unattainable.
Drawing on nineteenth-century figurative painting and modernist approaches to colour and symbolism, I use realism to create islands of clarity within paintings that are otherwise driven by colour, atmosphere and feeling. While recognisable forms provide points of entry, paint is allowed to retain its material presence, encouraging the work to be experienced as much through sensation as representation.”
NOTABLE SITTERS
Lemn Sissay (2019) | Wunmi Mosaku (2019) | Nieves Barragan Mohacho (2019) | Pete Briquette (2022) | Emma Dabiri (2023)
EXHIBITIONS, RESIDENCIES & FEATURES
2018 | Making Work Here, The Winchester Gallery
2020 | The Visual Art Open, Online
2021 | Artist in Residence, Stowe House, Buckinghamshire
2021 | Introspections of an Englishman, The Watson Art Gallery, Stowe (Solo)
2022 | The Football Art Prize, Touchstones Rochdale, The Millennium Gallery Sheffield, Sunderland Museum
2022 | Portrait Artist of the Year, The Exhibition, Compton Verney, Leamington Spa
2022 | The Sequested Prize, Online
2022 | Vanity Fair UK
2023 | Connexions, MK Public Library, Milton Keynes
2023 | Vanity Fair UK
2023 | The Old Stoic Society, Green & Stone, Chelsea
2023 | Summer Exhibition, Green & Stone, Chelsea
2023 | Portrait of a Top Boy, Somerset House, Embankment
2023 | Game Changers, Bingham Riverhouse, Richmond
2023 | The Old Stoic Society, The Watson Art Gallery, Stowe
2023 | The Oxford Art Society’s Young Artist Competition, Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford
2024 | The British Art Prize 2023, gallery@oxo, Southwark
2024 | Oxford Art Society Members Exhibition, St. Johns College, Oxford
2025 | Royal Society of British Artists Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2025 | Guildford House Open
AWARDS
2018 | The Clyde Hopkins Award for Valorous Painting
2020 | Visual Arts Association Emerging Artist Award
2020 | Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year (Finalist)
2022 | The Football Art Prize (Winner)
2022 | The Sequested Prize (Winner)
2023 | The British Art Prize (Second Prize)
2024 | Oxford Art Society Honorary Members Prize
2025 | The de Laszlo Foundation Award Highly Commended, RBA
2025 | The Michael Harding Award, RBA
2026 | Guildford House Open Peoples Choice Award
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(For more detail please see 'Press & PR')