Hinting at the traditional, Michael’s prints are both timeless and yet strikingly modern. They follow in the footsteps of the illustrious practice of botanical drawing, in which scientists once used art as a tool to observe, and attempt to understand the marvellous minutiae of the natural world. Michael draws directly from plants found on his daily local walks, and then captures them forever in time, in print. These works add a haunting sense of the uncanny to his subjects: part still life, part portrait, they also brilliantly evoke the delicious strangeness that always resides at the very edges of nature in its purest form.
“Printmaking offers me the opportunity to invert my habitual processes of image making. It presents challenges, as the behaviours of coloured inks on paper differ from the behaviours of paint on canvas and wood. These challenges almost always result in new and lasting creative possibilities.” — Michael Canning
Michael was awarded the Royal Hibernian Academy’s prestigious Hennessy Craig Prize. His work is shown and extensively collected in Ireland, the United Kingdom and internationally.
Born: Limerick, Ireland, 1971
Lives and works: Limerick, Ireland
For enquiries please call 01 887 8544
or contact mail@stoneyroadpress.com.
