Collection Conversations - Natasha Michaels & Carole Pearson

About

In June's installment, we will be joined by Natasha Michaels and Carole Pearson.

Natasha Michaels studied communication design at Saint Martin's School of Art and at the Royal College of Art where she specialised in printmaking. Her work explores conventions in classical subjects from art history. Celebrating, and at the same time, subverting these images, Michaels reimagines the sitters as fictional, cartoon-like characters. Through the lens of celebrity and social media she explores historic and contemporary notions of power, identity, status and artifice.

Carole Pearson worked with museum collections before studying at Bath Spa University, first for a BA in ceramics, followed by an MA in fine art. Pearson works mostly on paper but also makes three-dimensional objects. Her selection of materials is low-tech, utilising found and everyday objects. Her thinking reflects her childhood growing up on North Yorkshire farms and her strong connection with the land. She looks for marks in the landscape, focusing on the impressions and traces that objects have left behind.
Left Image: Young Woman with Dog, 2022, Natasha Michaels, photopolymer gravure, Golder-Thompson Gift (image courtesy of Rabley Editions and the artist)
Right Image: Bench II, 2018, Carole Pearson, unique cyanotype © Carole Pearson