Michael Close was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and received his education at the University of Guelph, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and Ontario College of Art.
As early as the 1970’s Michael has sought the synthesis of both the intellect and the sensual in an attempt to arrive at some universal truth. This is what led him to focus on images of the human face to which we all respond, more or less intensely; some eliciting emotional sensations, others appealing directly to our intellect. Set in flat, non-existent space, these simplified forms whose contours are bold and energized and animated calligraphically by line and colour, fuse into one another in a fiction of shifting points of view.
It is the artist’s intention in these works to combine a variety of elements and experiences to serve the conveyance of truth and beauty to his viewers in the spirit of the freedom in which they were created.
Michael Close had more than fifteen solo shows in museums around the world. And his works are in the permanent collection of: National Art Gallery and Cultural Centre (Honiara, Soloman Islands); Bitola Museum (Bitola, Macedonia); Prilep Museum, (Prilep, Macedonia); Ohrid Museum (Ohrid Macedonia); Skopje City Museum (Skopje, Macedonia), Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych "Art Stilon", Museum, Poland; National Gallery, (Macedonia).
