MICHAEL FRANCIS CARTWRIGHT
Artist
Michael Francis Cartwright is used to his freedom. His art is the voice of freedom. His work, whether it is sculpture or painting or drawing or printmaking, has always been that way. He alternates between inventive delightful play, where what he makes is a quirky reference to life, to serious tough and uncompromising judgement on man and nature, and then to pure luscious sensuousness when only the colour matters or forms and textures are created to abstractly convey beauty. His work is not sequential. He doesn’t care that the work is not sequential. It is the freedom of being that counts in his work and in his personal life, a life that also declares his freedom. His philosophy is about a journey in life that is inspired and connected to his inner yearnings to grow as a creator. Despite the several nuances of his nature, Cartwright over the years has developed his own signature that defines his work as his own, “I create in an attempt to destroy personal borders.” Now Cartwright lives in the Tuscan hills beyond Lucca. He paints in his studio on the green Lima River in Bagni di Lucca and goes to his studio in Pietrasanta where he carves marble or casts his work in bronze.
Selected Exhibitions
2022 Sculpture, Nunan and Cartwright, Citadel Museum, St Tropez, France
2018 Artistes Antipodes, St Tropez, France, with Shona Nunan, sculpture, painting and drawing
2018 Exhibition, ‘Journeys’, of sculpture at Australian High Commission, London, in the great Exhibition Hall with Shona Nunan, Jacob Cartwright and Sollai Cartwright to celebrate 100 years of Australia House.
2016 Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne Australia
2015 Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne Australia
2014 Sandra Walters exhibition at the Sai Kung Garden
2014Exhibition, sculpture, painting and drawing at Nock Art Foundation in Hong Kong, with Shona Nunan and Sollai Cartwright.
2014 Sandra Walters Consultancy exhibition, HK
La Rondine Gallery, Drawing exhibition with Shona Nunan
La Rondine Gallery, group exhibition
2013 La Rondine Gallery Pop Up Exhibition, Sheung Wan Art Precinct, Hong Kong
La Rondine Gallery, Tuscany, Italy
2012 La Rondine Gallery, Tuscany, Italy
2010 Gallicano, Tuscany, Italy
2009 Gallicano, Tuscany, Italy
2008 Gallicano, Tuscany, Italy
2004 Art 2 Gallery, Mita Building, Singapore
2001 Art 2 Gallery, Mita Building, Singapore
2001 Sandra Walters – Rotunda, Exchange Square, Hong Kong.
2000 Lindenderry, Red Hill, Australia
2000 Sheraton Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand
2000 Exhibition At Baltazar Gallery, painting
1999 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France
1997 Sandra Walters, Hong Kong
1997 Ian Rogers, Melbourne, Australia
1997 Fort Canning Park, with the Shona tribe sculptors of Africa. Singapore.
1995 Solander Gallery, ACT, Australia
1995 Art 2 Gallery, Singapore
1994 Meridian Gallery, traveling show to China, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong Art Fair
1994 Meridian Gallery, collaborative exhibition with artist Tony Scott. Vic. Australia
1994 Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Meridian Gallery
1993 Meridian Gallery, Vic. Australia
1992 Qdos Gallery, Lorne, Australia
1992 Castlemaine Gaol, Vic. Australia
1992 Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Meridian Gallery
1991 Alchemy Gallery, Vic. Australia
1990 Castlemaine gaol exhibition, Castlemaine, Australia
1989 Wallace Bros. Gallery, Vic. Australia
1988 Mildura Sculpture Triennial, Vic. Australia
1988 Barossa Sculpture Symposium, SA. Australia
1987 Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1986 Bitumen River Gallery, ACT, Australia
1984 Mildura Sculpture Triennial, Vic. Australia
Artist Residencies
2015 Montsalvat artist in residence, Melbourne Australia
2015 Kunstler Bei Wu, Wesenberg, Germany
2013 Cill Rialaig Art Project, County Kerry, Ireland
CIS, Chinese International School Hong Kong
2011 Yew Chung Foundation, Hong Kong.
1999 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France
1998 Cill Rialig Art Project, County Kerry, Ireland
1996 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France
1991 Port Moresby College of Art, PNG
1990 3rd street , New York. USA
Selected commissions and projects
2016 Private commission, Redhill, Australia, ‘Fishing Over Uluru’ bronze 250 x 200 cm, Australia
2013 Created hand carving marble sculpture symposium, Bagni di Lucca Arts Festival, Italy
2011 Yew Chung Foundation, Hong Kong, `Setting free the Golden Carp’ 250 x 500cm, painting for the Gallery entrance at Yew Chung, Hong Kong
Yew Chung Foundation, Hong Kong, ‘Lost in the Cosmos’ 200 x 240cm venetian (smalto) glass mosaic, entrance at Yew Chung, Hong Kong
2010 Goldin Metrolpolis Hotel, Tianjin, China, ‘Sunset’ 200 x 496cm oil on eight chestnut panels, commissioned for the Presidential suite.
2010 Morgan Stanley, head office-ICC tower, Hong Kong,`The Bank’, 810cm long, three panels, oil on linen,
2008 Capital M Beijing, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China,`Journey’ 50 meters long x varying heights, (2.2 – 5.4), oil on linen
Reclining Figure’ black marble on granite, apprx. 200 cm tall by 250cm x 150cm
1999 Singapore Expo building,`Passage’, 5 x 3 x 1.5 meters, bronze, granite and concrete, VIP entrance,
2000 Australia, private commission for garden, ‘Reclining Figure’ black marble on granite, apprx. 200 cm tall by 250cm x 150cm
1998 Private commission, ‘Voyage’ for garden, Australia
1997 Grand Plaza Hotel, Singapore,`Journey’, 2.8 x 2.5 x 1.0 meters, bronze
1996 Willums Art Foundation, Provence, France, a collection of cast bronze and steel sculptures
1993 Private commission, Memorial sculpture, ‘Boat’, NSW, Australia
1988 Sculpture symposium Tanunda, South Australia – donation of large marble sculpture, ‘Awakening’, to The local council
1978 Environmental work at Portsea Bay beach, Victoria, Australia. Documented on the front page of `The Herald’, the Melbourne daily newspaper.