Unknown Female II

Toby Michael is an Oil Painter and Draughtsman from Buckingham, whose practice is predicated upon 19 th century academic methodology. He believes that the selective and interpretive qualities of the academic method are conducive to the potential for a universal read whilst retaining individual authenticity.

The subjects in Toby’s paintings are carefully chosen and depicted for the purpose of aesthetics and their potential as vehicles for greater conceptual investigation when contextualised alongside iconography derived from 80s/90s children’s television, art history and gaming culture. Toby draws parallels between painting and his experience consuming visual media as a child, where the viewer is invited into worlds grounded in a sense of realism. The manipulation of formal and conceptual elements are juxtaposed against the viewers experience of reality, which creates a tension between objective and axiomatic truth.