If you are a member of the press and would like to reach Michelle Bird you may contact her at birdmichelle@mac.com
San Franciscan born artist Michelle Bird has been creating all her life. She received her painting education in The Netherlands and embodied her craft under the tutorial of the Dutch Poet and Painter Anton Martineau.
Lectures
Bird has lectured at San Francisco's Academy of Art University on drawing techniques. Switzerland's Kanton Schule Zürich has invited her to host more than a dozen demonstrations for their program A Wie Atelier. She has given group workshops in experimental painting to the engineers at Google Zürich and to the Integrative Psychiatric clinic in Winterthur. Axa Winterthur and Rheumaliga Zürich are the among other institutions who have requested talks about color and inspiration.
Publications & Events
She has gained Dutch and international attention with her illustrations in the book 'Closed Curtains Lives of de Wallen'. Other illustrations of hers have been published by the Dutch & Belgium publication 'Joie de Vivre'. In addition she is the founder and producer of MAP Magazine Artist Professionals, The Open Doors Event, and Outside Inside International Artists in Winterthur.
Art
Her art has been shown in numerous exhibitions and galleries in europe and the United States, including Galerie Cècile Charron in Paris, Galleria del Arte Ill Milennio in Venice, Galerie Mainau in Zürich and Gallery Bàni in Winterthur. In 2003 she has won a nationally juried exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in Sacramento, California. In 2011 Bird's work appeared in Pakistan's art and design publication INK. Her work has been filmed for a Japanese television film to be released in 2012, Germany's Boesner TV and by the Ethiopian Director Dirbdil Assefa for the Kurz International Filmfestival Winterthur.
A description by the former curator of the Kunstmuseum Basel Erwin Treu, " Michelle Bird ist eine Malerin der Farbe, der „Peinture“, und nicht der Gestik. Ihre Palette ist so farbenfreudig wie es ihre Bilder sind. Die schwarze Farbe verwendet sie nur sparsam und nie dominant. Ihr Pinselstrich ist kurz und nur selten heftig. Bei aller Abstraktion liebt die Künstlerin auch das Figurale und kommt dort ihrem Lehrer Martineau am nächsten. Ihre abstrakten Bilder strömen Lebensfreude und Lebenslust aus. Wo sie gegenständlich wird, kommen dagegen auch Gedanken aus dem Transzendentalen, aus dem Unergründlichen und Rätselhaften des Lebens zum Ausdruck.".
Bird's work is represented in private and corporate collections in the United States, Switzerland, France and The Netherlands, including those of Axa Insurance and SEC Communications. She works out of two studios, one in Switzerland on the outskirts of Zurich adjacent to a forested hill, where she has lived with her husband since 2004 and one in Antwerp in the historical Suyker Huis located in the city center. Her daughter studied art at Berkeley and also works as an artist. Michelle Bird speaks English, Dutch, and German; and holds a San Francisco Bay Skippers rating.
photo Natalie Madani