MICHAEL HYAM
Michael Hyam is hard to classify. He does not fit into any fashion trend or group. His work pays little attention to the contemporary world at all, let alone the concerns of current art practice.
Having been a professional painter for the last thirty years he has made a regular appearance and won numerous awards in all the major London art society shows.
More recently Michael was presented with the the Founders Prize at the prestigious “Discerning Eye” Exhibition in London in 2020.
In his figurative paintings, the elements of spirituality and sensuality vie for dominance. His cast of beautiful, often eccentrically coiffured young women, pose languidly demanding the viewer’s attention; however their impermanence is implied throughout by a visual blurring of the edges, a sense that each figure will start to disintegrate before our eyes. The broad brush strokes, while defining their features to perfection, simultaneously create an other-worldly quality around each figure. The consequent impression is that of a series of transient creatures – sprites, deities or spirits – their image caught fleetingly from the corner of our eye, moments before they vanish into the ether.
Michael’s paintings convey a world of ephemerality and the inevitable evanescence of physical beauty to perfection. As aesthetic objects they are a pleasure and as works of art, they will, we have no doubt, endure.