2022
American artist Michele Mikesell incorporates elements of Pop art, Surrealism and Expressionism into her eclectic works and creates a unique visual experience for the viewer. Her figurative paintings and portrait paintings depict figures that seem to be peering out at and contemplating anyone within a stone’s throw of the works. In Mikesell’s subjects’ faces, the influence of the 17th-century Dutch masters is also detectable, while her abstract paintings are marked by the influence of postwar Abstract Expressionist painters.
Mikesell was born in Alabama in 1973. She earned her BFA at Texas Woman's University, Denton, in 2002, where she minored in graphic design. In 2004, Mikesell earned her MFA at the University of Oklahoma before moving to Dallas to begin her artistic career. It didn't take long for her to begin turning heads. Dallas-based DECORAZON Gallery, located in the city's historic Bishop Arts District, started representing her in 2006.
When Mikesell begins to work on a piece in her studio, she is unhurried, allowing each project to unfold before her by reacting to the marks in the paint. Many of her paintings are of human figures with whom viewers may feel a sense of familiarity, while other works feature anthropomorphic animals or petroglyphs meant to function as metaphors for the dichotomy of animal instincts and human ideas. Mikesell also draws inspiration from mythology: The Morrigan (2017), for example, is based on a powerful figure from Irish folklore.
Mikesell has exhibited at many art fairs around the world, including SCOPE Art Show, London Art Fair, Aqua Art Miami and the Asia Contemporary Art Show in Hong Kong. She had a solo exhibition at the Ardmore Museum of Art in Oklahoma, and her work is held in numerous private and corporate collections and has been featured in publications like Juxtapoz magazine.
Find original Michele Mikesell paintings on 1stDibs.
Dakini, Oil on canvas, mysterious and whimsical pop art portrait master
By Michele Mikesell
Located in Dallas, TX
MICHELE MIKESELL b. 1973, Alabama, USA In 2002, Michele Mikesell earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in graphic design from Texas Women's University in Denton, TX. Mikesel...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Phaedra's Horse, Oil on canvas, mysterious and whimsical pop art portrait master
By Michele Mikesell
Located in Dallas, TX
MICHELE MIKESELL b. 1973, Alabama, USA In 2002, Michele Mikesell earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in graphic design from Texas Women's University in Denton, TX. Mikesell completed her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Oklahoma in Norman in 2004. “Creating individuals is what I find most interesting in the studio. It is my hope that these portraits will be familiar characters to the viewer, subjects we recognize and identify with. My work consistently travels along a general vein of the universal human experience. This particular group of paintings...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Kore of Lyons by Michele Mikesell, Oil on canvas, pop figurative painting
By Michele Mikesell
Located in Dallas, TX
Kore of Lyons is a stunning pop figurative painting by Michele Mikesell. Using oil on canvas, the figure is abstractly painted with a bright color palette. MICHELE MIKESELL b. 1973,...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Fylgia, animal figurative portrait, mysterious and whimsical oil painting
By Michele Mikesell
Located in Dallas, TX
MICHELE MIKESELL b. 1973, Alabama, USA In 2002, Michele Mikesell earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in graphic design from Texas Women's University in Denton, TX. Mikesell completed her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Oklahoma in Norman in 2004. “Creating individuals is what I find most interesting in the studio. It is my hope that these portraits will be familiar characters to the viewer, subjects we recognize and identify with. My work consistently travels along a general vein of the universal human experience. This particular group of paintings...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
"Arizona" - Surreal figurative narrative oil on canvas
By Michele Mikesell
Located in Dallas, TX
MICHELE MIKESELL b. 1973, Alabama, USA In 2002, Michele Mikesell earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in graphic design from Texas Women's University in Denton, TX. Mikesel...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Hildebrand, Abstract figurative oil on canvas, Animal-human, soft background
By Michele Mikesell
Located in Dallas, TX
MICHELE MIKESELL b. 1973, Alabama, USA In 2002, Michele Mikesell earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in graphic design from Texas Women's University in Denton, TX. Mikesel...
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Time Well Spent, Contemporary Mixed Media Painting, Figurative Abstract, 24 x 18
By Lesley Anne Spowart
Located in Carmel, CA
Lesley Anne Spowart (American, born 1957) "Time Well Spent", 2021 Acrylic paint, oil stick, and mixed media on stretched canvas. Signed in the bottom left corner and on the verso. "...
Mixed Media, Canvas, Oil Crayon, Acrylic, Stretcher Bars
Judy Rifka Abstract Expressionist Pop Art Portrait Oil Painting Brooke Alexander
By Judy Rifka
Located in Surfside, FL
Judy Rifka (American, b. 1945) Roman Nose 1982 Oil on canvas Dimensions: 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61.0 cm) Hand signed on stretcher: Judy Rifka Provenance: Brooke Alexander Galle...
Oil, Canvas
Heart - Abstract Figurative Painting, Mixed Media on Canvas, 36x24
By Erin Hammond Caswell
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Erin Hammond is a contemporary abstract expressionist artist whose free-form paintings capture the essence of her inner, subjective realities. With a vibrant palette and dynamic mark...
Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil Pastel, Acrylic
Magic - Simone Picciotto, 21st Century, Contemporary figurative painting
By Simone Picciotto
Located in Paris, FR
Acrylic paint on canvas Signed lower right
Canvas, Acrylic
Coraline: Figurative vs. Abstract Painting, 110x80 cm, New Condition
By Kohlene Hendrickson
Located in BARCELONA, ES
"When I walk into my atelier to start a new painting, I look at the white surface, feeling into it, and the first color that comes to mind is where I begin. I start by pouring the pa...
Mixed Media, Encaustic
The Collector
By Giacomo Modolo
Located in Torino, IT
Giacomo Modolo (1988), after graduating at the Art School of Vicenza, obtained his bachelor degree in Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice on February 2011 and, at the...
Oil
