biography
Michael-Francis Cartwright, born in 1959, has been creating art since childhood, when his father, an artist, placed a paintbrush and canvas in his hands and told him to begin. Early encounters with the Impressionists inspired a lifelong journey through the worlds of Fauvism and Expressionism, influences that continue to shape his vibrant and expressive work today.
While studying at Art College in Australia, Michael-Francis explored installation and construction art, but his creative direction shifted profoundly after meeting lecturer Stewart Ross, former assistant to Henry Moore, who encouraged him to embrace the traditional practices of modelling and carving.
In 1981, he met fellow artist Shona Nunan, and together they embarked on a life dedicated to art. Their journey took them to Carrara, Italy, in 1984 — then a vital hub for artists working in marble and bronze — where their shared commitment to sculpture deepened.
Artist Statement
Michael Francis Cartwright approaches the creative act as a kind of surrender—an entry into a space where thought dissolves and instinct takes over. His work is not directed but discovered, pulled from a place within that feels at once deeply personal and strangely ancient. For him, the act of making is less about control and more about getting out of the way—clearing a path for something raw, honest, and unnameable to emerge. Before each session, he utters the phrase “I don’t give a fuck” aloud—not as a rejection of meaning, but as a deliberate release of ego and expectation, a ritual to invite presence and freedom.
Cartwright views creativity as an energy we have yet to fully understand—an internal force, possibly rooted in our evolutionary memory, that surfaces when thinking stops. When in this space, the artist becomes a kind of visitor to his own process, unsure at times who or what is truly steering the work. It is only later, often years on, when encountering a piece in a collector’s home, that he meets the work again—with a quiet mix of sadness and pride—sadness for a part of himself left behind in the making, no longer his, now living in the work; and pride that what was given still speaks, still moves, still matters.
He believes that most collectors are drawn to a piece not because they immediately understand it, but because they don’t—because there’s an unresolved connection that tugs at them. Living with the work becomes their way of making sense of it, and often, each person in that space will see something different. For Cartwright, this layered interpretation is not only welcomed but essential: the work continues to live and evolve through the eyes and lives of those who choose to hold it.
Ultimately, Cartwright’s art stands as quiet witness to something beyond language—a dialogue between instinct and form, presence and absence, self and other. He lets it speak on its own terms.
Themes & Symbols
Throughout his career, Michael-Francis has explored themes of life’s journey, often expressed through a profound connection to the sea. His early works — including ephemeral installations and sculptural Boat forms — evoke the precarious balance between stability and the unknown, symbolizing the voyage of life and navigation through existence. His Boat forms, often seen drifting over imagined ocean depths, are powerful metaphors for human experience — travel, migration, adventure, and solitude.
Over time, these maritime forms have evolved into a broader symbolic language of freedom, movement, and transformation:
- Bird forms, capturing the joy and liberation of flight.
- Clouds on Hilltops, reflecting the fleeting, ephemeral moments of life, hovering between the material and the spiritual.
- The Astronomer, a figure peering into the vast night sky, reminding us of our microscopic presence within the immense cosmos — a journey outward, beyond the sea, into the universe itself.
Today, Michael-Francis lives and works in Provence, France, where he shares a studio with Shona Nunan. Together, they continue to create works that speak to life’s essential voyages — across sea, sky, and the human spirit.
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A film by Hugo Cavalier.