BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Michel lives on the small german island Hiddensee in the Baltic Sea and likes to draw her inspiration from the island’s rich treasure trove.
Myths and people fascinate her and are regularly reflected in her subtle works.
She is also very interested and influenced by street art, poetic literature, psychology (especially resilience research) and philosophy.
Her drawings are dialogs with experiences, current processes and ideas about the future, in a rather dreamy aesthetic,
always in black and white and in a filigree network of simple metaphors.
Usually she works with very fine rapidographs or fountain pens, black ink on architect paper without preliminary sketches and the possibility to erase anything.
CV
2024 Exhibit at the Andakulova Gallery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2024 Exhibit at the Casa Del Arte Palma in Palma, Spain
2024 Exhibit at the Thomson Gallery in Zug, Switzerland
2024 Exhibition ‘Hiddenseelicht’, a collaboration with Kristin Hoell’s photography, Island Hiddensee, Germany
2024 Illustration in the second urban fantasy book of the ‘Hellfire & Holy Water’ series (Die Ouroborus Gesellschaft) Author Jack Sandmann
2023/24 Illustrations published in the children’s book ‘Turmal – Ein Glücksdrache Sucht Sein Glück’ Author Timo Schwagerick
2023 Exhibition ‘Meer Zeichnungen’, Goldperle, Ostseesaal, Island Hiddensee, Germany
2023 Selected to be represented by La Galeria – Contemporary Art Station
2023 Illustration in the book ‘Hellfire & Holywater’ Author Jack Sandmann
2023 Awarded with the 1. International Donatello Art Prize, Palazzo Borghese, Florence, Italy
2022 Exhibition ‘Works On Paper’, Brick Lane Gallery, London, GB
2022 Exhibition ‘Sagenhaftes Hiddensee’ Henni Lehmann Haus Vitte, Island Hiddensee, Germany
2021 Exhibition ‘Summer Salon’, Van Der Plas Gallery in Manhattan’s Lower Eastside New York, USA
2020 Exhibition ‘Urban Art’, Gläsernes Atelier in Pirmasens, Germany
2019 Drawings in the book ‘Bothenstoffe, 365 Tage Inspiration Für Dein Bewusstsein’ Author James Both, fineBooks Verlag, Publisher Alexander Broicher
2015 ‘The Selfie Show: An Art Exhibition of Self- Portraits’ Museum Of New Art in Detroit, USA
2012 Head of social pedagory school project at Realschule Plus – implementation of ‘Street Art’ workshop
2012 Lecturer (ÖKJA) at the youth culture workshop (JuKuWe) and youth center (Jugendhaus One) in Pirmasens – Bildende Kunst/ educational arts
2011 Exhibition and 2nd place at the Sparkasse Südwestpfalz youth art prize with the work ‘Eine handvoll Südwind’ (A handful southern wind)
2011 Voluntary social year in culture – development and exercise of numerous workshops in the field of visual arts in public child and youth work in compliance with educational requirements (iB and ÖKJA)
2011 Organization and curation of an international exhibition “Street Art and Graffiti” with multimedial presentation as part of the international weeks against racism
2011 Organization and implementation of the street painting campaign “Painting without borders”
2011 (Creative) participation in the following projects/seminars of the Kulturbüro Rheinland Pfalz (Palatine Forest Region, Germany)
“Wa(h)re Kultur” Culture between self-marketing and the search for meaning / introduction to project management
“Gegenkultur” artistic examination of the (counter)cultural movements of the 20th and 21st centuries
“Cultivating a city – culture versus profitability”
“Kulturmetropole Berlin” (Kunsthaus Tacheles)
“Kunst.Raum.Frei.Kunst” guerrilla art project
STATEMENT
It’s not seldom I wander the shore of the Baltic Sea, paths only feet, paws and hooves have touched, accompanied by wind fleeing trees or crows and butterflies in the heathlands of the tiny german island Hiddensee, where I live. Enchanted by the hereby nordic myths and folklore, the portion of my hesitations, ponderings and things alluring to me conjure up the drawings I share.
In this series of work my figures seem not as lost in the transcendental realm, as they have been. They carefully touch local landscapes and sceneries, as if they slightly get an idea where to belong.
I’d like the viewer to follow the inked paths to glimpses, flashlight captures of things found in the dark. Maybe invite to adjust the eyes and read between the lines. Especially where transparency and overlays might lead to scratched woods and the savage sea full of contrast, I always tried to highlight resilience.
Of course I stayed true to black and white aesthetics. Silence all around, but where mistakes happened, there is movement, because ink can’t be erased.
