Resident May 2021 – October 2021.
Michael Shepherd holds a Diploma of Fine Arts (Honours) from Elam School of Fine Arts. A regular exhibitor since the 1980s his works can be found in a number of significant public and private collections, including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Auckland Art Gallery, and the Christchurch Art Gallery. He was awarded an MNZM for Services to the Arts in 2008.
Shepherd spent his early years in Ngaruawahia and this proximity to the sites of pivotal events in New Zealand’s nineteenth-century history fuelled a decades-long fascination with the complexities of the colonial era and its legacies. In 1982 he was awarded a Queen Elizabeth Arts Council grant, which he used to study 17th century Dutch painting materials and techniques in Amsterdam. Since then, has been producing intricate, painterly works, often in series, that engage history and memory, forging connections between present and past.
While his residency was cut short by six months due to the Covid lockdown, Michael produced a body of over 15 individual works and in 2023 three paintings on board and ten works on paper, created during his residency, were exhibited at Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland.
Michael has donated two of his works to the Henderson House Art Collection.