(Scotland, b.1972)
Michael Craik was born in Edinburgh in 1972 and has worked as an artist in Scotland for over 25 years. He studied Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen before completing an MA in European Fine Art in Barcelona. A recipient of several awards, Craik’s work has been widely exhibited internationally and is represented by galleries in Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and the USA. Michael Craik lives and works in Fife, Scotland. His coastal studio is surrounded by an expanse of sky and the endlessly shifting colours of the sea as they vanish into the distant horizon of the Forth Estuary. The uninterrupted ebb and flow of these waters form a subconscious backdrop to Craik’s daily studio routine, a metronome to his unhurried and deliberate artistic practice.
Craik’s process is one of adding and subtracting, of reduction and distillation. Each work is slowly and meticulously crafted over weeks and months by repeatedly brushing, spreading and pouring layers of translucent acrylic paint. The painting goes on a journey. One moment it exists as a block of vivid, opaque, monochromatic colour, only to be tempered and transformed later by subsequent veils of paint. At regular intervals the painted surface is sanded flat, removing all brush marks to leave a pebble smooth surface and uninterrupted fields of colour, which dissolve and melt across the surface, fading to the edges where fine bands of saturated colour have been exposed. The contrasting edges of Craik’s paintings become the horizon for each painting, a boundary containing illusory spaces of colour that echo memories of light and place. These are quiet, contemplative spaces that encourage the viewer to pause and reflect. All painterly textures and marks have been erased, yet the ebb and flow of colour across the picture plane mirrors the push and pull of the process each work undergoes - the layering and uncovering of paint, the coming and going of ideas, and ultimately the passage of time.
Education
1999 – 2000 MA European Fine Art, Winchester School of Art, Barcelona / Winchester
1992 – 1996 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen
Solo and Joint Exhibitions
2022 Ebb & Flow – &Gallery, Edinburgh
2022 Interlude – Janknegt Galley, Laren, The Netherlands
2021 Breathing Space – with Eric Cruikshank, Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo, Barcelona
2020 ECHO – &Gallery, Edinburgh
2018 Continuum – with Gisela Hoffmann at Galerie Schmidt & Schütte, Cologne
Solo exhibition – Zembla Gallery, Hawick, Scotland
Percezione – with Sonia Costantini at THECA Gallery, Milan
Two person exhibition – with Jeffrey Cortland Jones at &Gallery, Edinburgh
2017 The Relative Medium – with Eric Cruikshank, Galleri Konstepidemin, Gothenburg
2016 Intime – Galerie Weissraum, Kyoto
2015 Ways of Seeing – with Eric Cruikshank, Howden Park Centre, Livingston, Scotland
2013 Build – with Merja Herzog-Hellsten, Galerie Salon 13, BOK, Offenbach
Malerei – with Eric Cruikshank, Galerie Albrecht, Berlin
2007 Razed To The Ground – Amber Roome Contemporary Art, Edinburgh
2006 Plate Tectonics – Galería Alonso Vidal, Barcelona
Solo Exhibition – An Tuireann Arts Centre, Portree, Scotland
2005 Solo Exhibition – Amber Roome Contemporary Art, Edinburgh
2004 Solo Exhibition – Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, Scotland
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 30:30 – &Gallery, Edinburgh
2022 Here, Now – Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo, Barcelona
2022 On Paper – &Gallery, Edinburgh
2021 Forma y Color – Lo Spazio, Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo, Barcelona
Winter Exhibition – &Gallery, Edinburgh
Orbit – Poimena Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania
Tiny Yet Mighty – &Gallery, Edinburgh
2020 Art Matters – Galerie Biesenbach, Cologne
2019 Beneath the Surface – City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Winter Exhibition – &Gallery, Edinburgh
Bauhaus – alles unter einem Dach – Galerie Kirbach, Dusseldorf
Art Check-in – Taneri Showroom, Seto, Japan
2019 PAPIER – FARBE – MALEREI – Verein für aktuelle Kunst/Ruhrgebiet, Oberhausen
Kunstkonzept SZA – Schilling, Zutt & Anschütz, Frankfurt
In The Stillness – Freudmonk Gallery, Online
2018 Unrestricted – &Gallery, Edinburgh
Exhibition with Thomas Jacobi & Charles Poulsen – The Hughson Gallery, Glasgow
On Narrow Paths – with Max Cole & Abraham David Christian, Galerie Kirbach, Dusseldorf
2017 Charity Postcard Exhibition – Zembla Gallery, Hawick
Connection – &Gallery, Edinburgh
Hydrophil – Galerie Schmidt & Schütte, Cologne
Exhibition with Gisela Hoffmann and Jan Scharrelmann – Verein für aktuelle
Kunst Ruhrgebiet, Oberhausen
2016 The Lite Bothy – DOK Artist Space at Freemason Hall, Edinburgh
2015 The Memory of Time – Wootdali Cultural Village, Pyeongtaek, South Korea
Sommersalon – Galerie Ulf Larsson, Cologne
Kunstkonzept SZA – Schilling, Zutt & Anschütz, Frankfurt
2014 The Society of Scottish Artists – Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2012 RSA Open 2012 – Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2011 Reflection: Contemporary Visual Arts & Crafts in Edinburgh – City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Materials – Galerie P13, Heidelberg
2010 Scottish Summer Exhibition – The Fleming Collection, London
2009 Paint Can – Travelling Gallery, Various locations in Scotland
Strata – Sarah Myerscough, London
The Drawing Room – National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
2008 WASPS Exhibition – Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh
2007 Open – Cube, Manchester
2006 ArtSway Open 06 – ArtSway, Sway, Hampshire
2005 Works on Paper – Amber Roome Contemporary Art, Edinburgh
Art Futures – Contemporary Art Society, London
2003 Flix – Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
2002 Art Futures – Contemporary Art Society, London
Mostyn Open 12 – Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno
2001 Revolution – Bellevue Gallery, Edinburgh
2000 Big Small New – Houldsworth, London
Art Fairs
2023 Volta Basel – Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo
2022 Luxembourg Art Week – Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo
Art Karlsruhe – Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo
2021 Volta Basel – Victor Lope Arte Contemporáneo
Kunst Rai Amsterdam – Janknegt Gallery
2019 Cologne Fine Art & Design – Galerie Kirbach
Art London – &Gallery
2010 Art London – Sarah Myerscough
2007 Art London – Amber Roome Contemporary Art
2006 Glasgow Art Fair – Amber Roome Contemporary Art
2001 Art Chicago – Houldsworth Gallery
Art Brussels – Houldsworth Gallery
London Art Fair – Houldsworth Gallery
Private and Public Collections
City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Bank of Montreal
Royal Bank of Scotland
University of Strathclyde
The Fleming Collection
Mastercard
John Lewis Partnership
Grampian Hospital Art Trust
Grays School of Art