MICHELLE BLADE
Los Angeles, CA
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Michelle Blade (b. 1981, Los Angeles) is a Los Angeles-based painter whose work examines time, memory, and the persistence of the natural world through intimate, autobiographical subjects. A third-generation Angeleno, Blade draws inspiration from Southern California landscapes, domestic interiors, and the everyday experiences of motherhood. Gardens, desert paths, domestic spaces, and interactions with her daughters serve as sites for exploring care, continuity, and the cyclical nature of life.
Blade approaches painting as a durational and intuitive process. She revisits figures and landscapes over time, allowing meaning to develop through repetition and reflection. Using a wet-on-wet technique with acrylic and ink on cotton poplin, she creates translucent surfaces where figuration and abstraction coexist. Figures emerge and recede within these spaces, integrated with their surroundings and representing universal states rather than individual likenesses. Their gestures convey moments of transition, vulnerability, and resilience.
Color functions as both a formal and expressive element, structuring compositions while conveying emotional resonance. Blade’s work emphasizes observation, attentiveness, and the interrelationship between humans and the natural world. Motherhood and the environment are central to her practice, approached not as subjects to control but as relationships to sustain. Critics have described this approach as a “maternal sublime,” in which care and attention become central forms of meaning.
Blade has presented solo exhibitions at Powerlong Museum (Shanghai), Asia Art Center (Beijing), Asia Art Center (Taipei), Loyal (Stockholm), Micki Meng (San Francisco), Wilding Cran (Los Angeles) and held group exhibitions at Marin MOCA (San Rafael, CA), Loyal (Stockholm), Loyal at El Royale (Los Angeles), Blum & Poe (Los Angeles), Simon Lee Gallery (London), The Bonnefanten Museum (Maastricht), Nassima Landau Foundation (Tel Aviv), Ju Ming Museum (New Taipei City), Xinjiang Art Museum (Urumqi, China), K11 MUSEA (Shanghai), WOAW Gallery (Hong Kong), The Torrance Art Museum, The Center for Contemporary Arts (Santa Fe), and Rachel Uffner (NYC).
2003 BA, Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, CA 1981 Born in Los Angeles, CA
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Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026
Piece Unique, Massimo DeCarlo, Paris
Night Gallery, Los Angeles
2025
The River, Powerlong Art Museum, Shanghai
2024
Grace Electric, Asia Art Center, Beijing
2023
Between the Bones and Now, Micki Meng, San Francisco
Maker of Meaning, Asia Art Center, Taipei
2022
Blue Horse, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm
2020
Into the Forest, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Inner and Outer Worlds: International Contemporary Paintings Exhibition, Juming Museum
New Taipei Mirroring, Xinjiang Art Museum, Urumqi
2024
The Journey Before: Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, CA
2023
Decendants, K11 MUSEA
Solid Roots, Supple Trunks, Rachel Uffner
Piano Sale Going on Somewhere, Michael Benevento
Strange Fruit, Harpers Gallery
2022
When the Sun Loses It's Light, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
High Voltage 3, Nassima Landau Foundation, Tel Aviv
Summertime Rolls, La Loma Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Machines of Desire, Simon Lee Gallery, London
Juggernaut, The Pit, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Urban Whisper, WOAW Gallery, Hong Kong
Urban Whisper, Make Room, Los Angeles, CA
My Secret Garden, Asia Art Center, Taipei
Ridiculous Sublime, SFA Advisory, New York, NY
From LA to Milan, F2T Gallery, Milan
2020
It’s a Sad & Beautiful World, Wilding Cran, Los Angeles
Poem from Home, Jacob’s West, Los Angeles
Track 16, If Everything is an Outrage, Los Angeles
2018
Project Space, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO
2017
A Way to Say, Chandran Gallery, San Francisco, CA
New Suns, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht 2016 Ritual Night, Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA
Unseen, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
Last Updated 24.10.37