Michelle McIver is an Auckland-based artist whose paintings explores light, form and dimension. Using glazes to layer her colours, Michelle's saturated jewel-hued colours create illusions of luminosity, transparency and the shifting play of light across surfaces.

 Michelle grew up in the rural south of New Zealand and studied art at the Otago School of Art. The subsequent time she spent living and working in rural Japan had an enduring influence on her aesthetics, in particular the traditional wabi-sabi philosophy of design which values simplicity, and advocates an acceptance of beautiful imperfections .

 Taking reference from New Zealand’s dramatic geographical features, Michelle paints in a simplified, semi-abstract manner. Her process involves deconstructing an image into simpler shapes and colours, applying paint and glazes which overlay each other allowing the viewer a sneak-peek at the different layers which can sometimes be seen at the sides and edges of the painting.