Made with love in Sunny Castlemaine.

Michael Wolfe is a multidisciplinary Australian artist whose practice encompasses painting, photography, and design. Based in Castlemaine, Victoria, Michael has developed a distinctive approach to art that merges gestural abstraction with a deep reverence for the Australian landscape. His work often reflects the dynamic interplay between nature's forms and the human experience, aiming to evoke the heat, colours, and energy of the environment.

Michael's artistic journey began in Glen Waverley, Melbourne, where his early interactions with the natural world sparked a lifelong fascination with landscapes. Over the years, he has held more than 40 solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows. Notable exhibitions include Shimmer at the 2019 Castlemaine State Festival, the 2020 Con(text)ural Landscapes at Bendigo Art Gallery, and his participation in the 2021 Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

In addition to his visual art, Michael has engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations that explore themes of memory, loss, and the human condition. His project Someone to Watch Over Me – The Better Angels of Our Nature, created with writer Kirsten Krauth and featuring lyrics by Nick Cave, delves into the rituals of remembrance through memorial statuary and reflections on sorrow and letting go.

Michael’s contributions to art have been recognised through various accolades, including being a finalist in the 2022 National Photographic Portrait Prize. His works are held in esteemed collections such as Bendigo Art Gallery, Castlemaine Art Museum, and La Trobe University.

In 2022, Michael expanded his reach by serving as an artist-in-residence on the television series The Block, where his artwork was featured prominently, introducing his vision to a broader audience.

Currently, Michael continues to create from his studio in Castlemaine, drawing inspiration from the surrounding landscapes and contributing to the rich tapestry of contemporary Australian art.

“These are old bones and old metaphors – artists and poets have been here before, many times. But both photographer and writer have found a path through the tangled undergrowth of familiar images to create new work which is sensitive, disconcerting and strong.” Jennifer Long, Curator.

“It seems to me there is something significant and felicitous that sculpture and poetry should be brought together with the art of photography. There’s something about great photography which is elegiac, about fixing and conserving lachrimae rerum – tears at the heart of things.” John Wolseley, Artist.

It takes time to create a work. Hours. Months. Years. 
Years of learning, training, honing, critiquing, getting by and making do, losing and finding, finishing and starting over and then starting over again. 
To draw on instincts so patiently and impatiently developed – until, one day, you suddenly discover that it’s instinct that you’re applying, that your hands have their own memory, that craft is a vocabulary and composition a grammar. 
Time has shifted, and the work that you’ve created – which only a moment ago, did not exist – now looks toward a new future, because nobody has experienced it yet but you.
And when somebody does encounter it, it won’t be that sense of long time or deep practice that they experience, but the new set of associations that the work has set into being just for them. A new forward momentum of new recollections and new imaginings. A moment in time that creates countless others. 
Your work has created a new future. 

Esther Anatolitis