Michelle Blade (b. 1981, Los Angeles, US) is a visual artist working in painting, sculpture and installation. Using exploration and the human condition as a broad starting point, Blade draws from the theories and visual vernacular of Transcendentalism, Magical Realism and Romanticism. Her images are full of divine light, and portraits of totem-like individuals submersed in radiant color-fields. Her aesthetic, which imbues the simple and mundane with preternatural qualities, is made by applying numerous atmospheric layers of acrylic ink that bleed, bloom and pulse with mystical tones.
Through this essential process her work is often pushed toward abstraction by the essence of the water based media. Blade believes this limbo serves as a physical placeholder for the mysterious, thus creating an opportunity to reinterpret and draw into question the essence of the everyday.
Blade’s work has been shown nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Arts; Santa Fe, The Bonnefantenmuseum; Netherlands, Jack Hanley Gallery; NY, Southern Exposure; San Francisco, Western Exhibitions; Chicago, Roberts & Tilton; LA and The Torrance Art Museum, among others. Her work has been featured in The NY Times Magazine, The LA Times, The Paris Review, Juxtapoz, The California Sunday Magazine, and Art Maze Mag. Blade holds a BA from Loyola Marymount and an MFA from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco. She currently lives and works in LA.