About

Michael Nathaniel Green’s work begins with a simple but unsettling question:

What exactly is going on here?

His own experience has given him a first hand understanding that there may be far more to reality than what we can take in through our five senses. Subtle, slippery and surreal, the nature of reality can be confusing at best. Living with schizophrenia has, in some ways, deepened his awareness of how perception can shift, fracture and reveal possibilities that are not always immediately visible.It is this uncertainty that he explores in his work.

Using abstraction and representation, Michael points to the ever changing qualities of reality, weaving between the familiar and the unfamiliar. He is drawn to the sensual, ephemeral and ambiguous qualities of everyday materials, often using them in unconventional ways. He explores the relationships between objects, creating a conversation between the casualness and deliberateness of placement. Through these relationships, one’s imagination begins to disentangle itself from conventional meaning and opens toward the poetic possibilities unfolding between the objects.

Like a bewildering surreal still life, they gently call our confidence in reality into question, asking us to pause long enough to wonder whether what we think we see is the whole story.

Michael had his first psychosis in 2008 at the age of 32 and spent about 10 years not making art. Upon moving to Peterborough, ON. CAN. he has been participating in the art community again. Michael has had a solo exhibit at Art Space, Evans Contemporary and a group exhibit at Coeur Nouveau. He has exhibited at Drey Gallery, Toronto, ON. and internationally at its sister gallery in Berlin, Germany. Michael attended Georgian College, Barrie, ON. for a fine arts diploma, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB. for a BFA, and Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. for a MFA.