About Mike Edwards

Mike Edwards is an established artist, well known for his portraits made of text. New bodies of work show Edwards evolving from his recognised style, developing an increasingly sophisticated approach to painting. Some works retain a typographic aesthetic, whilst others incorporate painted neon, abstract expressionism, geometric forms and traditional landscape painting to produce a complex and energetic dialogue between the old and the new.

Edwards has exhibited extensively, including four solo shows, and his work is in collections around the world, including those of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Imelda May, and the late publisher Felix Dennis. David Bowie signed Edwards’ unique typographic portrait of Aladdin Sane - which went on to raise phenomenal funds for charity at auction. His portrait of Lord Attenborough is on permanent display at The Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, University of Sussex. Edwards' work was also included in Gilles Peterson's book 'Broadcasting in a Pandemic', a cultural documentation of a year in lockdown.

An exceptional painter, Edwards started out as a professional artisan artist before developing his own body of work. Projects included a stage set for rock band Blur and producing commissioned artworks for Bacardi, Budweiser and Urban Outfitters.

Edwards continues to push boundaries in new paintings currently in progress in his studio in central Brighton.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

As in nature, I’m looking for a fine balance in my paintings. My work is in a constant state of flux, and continues to evolve through a variety of styles and experiments.

My paintings consider space, both pictorial and illusionary, light, both natural and man-made, and energy, both painterly and contained.

I feel that paintings, with their physicality and their physical presence are the closest thing humans have made to a natural element that can communicate the intangible or the metaphysical. That an emotional or cerebral reaction in the viewer can be caused by simply looking at a painting is extraordinary, and is key to why I choose this medium.

I’m fascinated how a painting can retain the energy of its creation and transmit it back to the viewer, whether it’s by expressive marks or brushstrokes or whether it's in controlled geometric shapes.

I’m a fan of optical magic, from the earliest examples of tromp l’oeil in Greek murals, through to contemporary street art. I like to play with the illusion of space on the picture surface, using pictorial devices to suggest receding distances, or drop-shadows to simulate objects breaking through the canvas to occupy the space of the viewer.

Light and colour is also intensely studied in my paintings. Often, painted images teeter, or hang, between light and dark tones. I use fluorescent pigments in many of my recent paintings, specifically to simulate neon light. I strive to strike a balance between these ultra-brilliant hues and regular colours, and blend traditional processes with contemporary materials.

From this journey of exploration and experimentation, the next phase of my artistic development is to work in a more intuitive, organic and immediate way, and to work more in nature and with nature.