Mike Crawshaw is an emergent Waiheke-based figurative artist, currently in his final year of a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree through Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design.  In 2023 Mike was awarded the Premier Award for Walker and Hall Art Awards and was included in Sanderson Gallery’s 2024 Emergent Artists exhibition.  Mike has an MA degree in political studies and has previously worked as a manager and refugee decision-maker with the Refugee Status Unit.  

Completed from early 2023 to the present this series of oil paintings includes figurative (isolating examples of political gesture as theatre) and landscape works (focussing upon land exploitation and the imposition of modernist geometries). Connecting the series is an exploration of the idea of asymmetrical power and alienation in the Anthropocene – an ongoing project.