contact details
email: m.agnew@rgu.ac.uk
tel: 00 44 (0)1224 263694

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MICHAEL AGNEW

Biographical Statement

Michael Agnew was born in Bellshill, Scotland in 1968. He graduated from Grays School of Art in 1990 gaining a first class honours degree in Fine Art [Printmaking]. After completing a M.A. in Printmaking from The Royal College of Art in 1992, he was employed as workshop manager and etcher at Peacock Printmakers [Peacock Visual Arts] Aberdeen. At this time he worked with a wide range of national and international artists producing prints predominately in etching.

In 1993 he was a visiting Lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee and from 1993 onwards he has lectured in Printmaking at Grays School of Art. Michael has exhibited nationally and internationally for over 20 years. In 2002 he instigated the inaugural Annual Printmaking Department Portfolio, which is now in its eighth year of production. In 2008 he was elected Academician to the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and sits on the General Purposes Committee, the selection panel for The John Kinross Scholarship to Florence, Italy and the selection panel for the RSA Residencies Programme. In 2009 he was appointed external examiner for Digital Arts & Visual Communication at the University of East London.

Michael's work, past and present, has been concerned with the making of ideas through the processes of drawing, painting, collage and printmaking. Contextually the work examines ideas of nationality, colonialism, locale and autobiography. Ideas and visuals are both emblematic and enigmatic. The paintings are objects: three dimensional, layered, built surfaces, icons buried in paint: sometimes later revealed, sometimes entombed forever. The notion of making and unmaking, and obliteration, is central to their production. The prints are complex visual spaces, juxtaposing iconography from many sources. This iconography is determined from a broad spectrum of starting points: drawings from the objective source, found matter, film, photographs, postcards etc. Essentially any appropriate visual information from any source can be utilised in the work.

Michael's current research examines the changing language of printmaking through collaboration with members of the "Cultures of Representation" research cluster, external artists and partners. The aim is to produce an exhibition and portfolio that challenges and develops innovation through non-toxic methodologies and fine art philosophies; to question the creative collaborative process, articulating the journey through artefact, film, seminar, critique and exhibitions. This dialogue will be made explicit through a web presence and publications.

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