Bio
Mike Perry’s photographs examine the interactions of landscape, nature and industrial society, questioning the romantic mythology of national parks as areas of wilderness and natural beauty. Among the many artists documenting ecological collapse, Perry’s work is distinct in the hyperlocal and apparently mundane nature of his subjects. Rather than epic, aerial vistas of glaciers or oil fields, Perry directs our attention to the overlooked hedgerow or the shell-incrusted flip-flop. The drama of these micro-studies are nonetheless global, holding a tension between their extraordinary aesthetic beauty and the damage inflicted upon nature by human activity. At at time when ecological collapse and a global pandemic are drawing unprecedented attention to the importance and fragility of nature, his work could hardly be more resonant.
Perry’s work has exhibited at National Museum Wales’s New Ground : Landscape Art in Wales since 1970, (2012) and Art and The Material Landscape (2016), at The Royal Academy of Arts exhibitions The Black and White Room (2014), Art Made Now (2018) and Climate (2022), at the internationally curated Vita Vitale exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and at the exhibition Found, curated by artist Cornelia Parker at The Foundling Museum (2016). In 2017, he was included in the British Arts Council Collection exhibition British Landscape and The Imagination at Towner Art Gallery and in 2018 his solo exhibition Land/Sea received Arts Council Wales touring funds and travelled through England, France and Wales. Perry was awarded a Creative Wales Award in 2015 and represented Wales at the 2018 Interceltique Arts Festival in Lorient, France. In 2021, Perry had his first solo exhibition with National Museum Wales at Oriel y Parc and works from this exhibition are now in the National Collection.
He was invited to the first Tipping Point symposium on climate change between leading scientists and artists at Oxford University and in 2015 presented to the Treasury on climate change action with economist Nicholas Stern and artists Antony Gormley and Cornelia Parker. In 2022, Perry created Y Cae (The Field), a 15 acre experimental art/ecology space for nature restoration and engagement with artists, writers and ecologists.
Solo Exhibitions
2021 – National Museum Wales, Oriel y Parc, Wales. July 10th 2021 more
2021 – Ocean, Exmouth, England, June 8th, 2021 more
2021 – Thelma Hulbert Gallery, England. May 20th, 2021 more
2019 – Ffynnonofi Studio, Untitled, Pembrokeshire, Wales more
2018 – Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales, Land/Sea (Tir/Môr), more
2018 – Interceltique Arts Festival Lorient, France, Land/Sea (Tir/Môr), more
2018 – Mostyn Gallery, Wales, Land/Sea (Tir/Môr), more
2017 – Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales, Land/Sea (Tir/Môr), more
2017 – Plymouth Arts Centre, England, Land/Sea (Tir/Môr), more
2015 – National Museum Wales, Artist in Residence exhibition at Oriel Y Parc, Wales more
2013 – ICIA, Institute For Contemporary and Interdisciplinary Arts, England, more
2007 – The Photographers’ Gallery, London, Inland more
2005 – Galerie Trabant, Vienna, Austria, Landscape
2004 – Photographers’ Gallery, London, Beach more
Group Exhibitions
2024 – Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales, Teulu/Family, March – June more
2023 – National Museum Wales, Bottles Grid, New Acquisitions Gallery more
2023 – Photofrome, Intersectional Matter: Waste more
2023 – National Museum Wales, Ash Dieback, Moonlight, New Acquisitions Gallery more
2022 – CLIMATE, Royal Academy of Arts
2021 – Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Oriel Lockdown
2018 – Royal Academy of Arts, Art Made Now
2017 – British Arts Council Collection Exhibition. A Green and Pleasant Land, Towner Art Gallery, England more
2016 – National Museum Wales, The Colour Of The Earth: Art and the Material Landscape more
2016 – De Queeste Art, Belgium, Sea Fever, Collaboration with Bruno Van Dijck, Philip Gross…. more
2016 – Llanw Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Wales, supported by Welsh Arts Council more
2016 – Foundling Museum, London, Found, Inc. Tacita Dean, Jeremy Deller, … more
2015 – 56th Venice Biennale 2015, Vita Vitale created by International Dialogue for Environmental Action more
2015 – Dutton, New York, Future Fossils, curated Yulia Topchiy and Tess Thackara, more
2014 – The Royal Academy of Arts, London, The Black & White Room curated by Cornelia Parker at more
2014 – Old Sorting Office, London, Here Today, including Gavin Turk, Tracey Emin, Peter Blake… more
2014 – The Photographers’ Gallery, London, Didn’t We Have A Lovely Time more
2013 – National Eisteddfod of Wales, Môr Plastig, Contemporary Arts Exhibition, more
2012 – New Ground: Landscape Art in Wales since 1970, National Museum Of Wales more
2012 – Unseen, Westergafabriek, Amsterdam, The Photographers’ Gallery, London more
2012 – Oriel Davies Open, Môr Plastig, Oriel Davies Gallery, Powys, Wales more
2011 – The Earth Only Endures, The Photographers’ Gallery at Stone Theatre, London more
2009 – Christies, London HHA competition, Winner Best Picture more
2009 – British Landscape Photography, curated by The Photographers’ Gallery, London more
2008 – Ecology and Art, The Royal Society for the Arts, London more
2008 – Oasis, Gana Art, Seoul, Korea more
2007 – Transition Gallery, London
2005 – Landscape, 5th International Photo Festival, Seoul, Korea
2005 – Photo London, Royal Academy. Abereiddi series, showcased by The Photographers’ Gallery
2004 – Paris Photo, Carousel De Louvre, The Photographers’ Gallery
2004 – Group show at Transition Gallery, London as part of E9 project more
2004 – Photo London. Royal Academy. Exhibited by The Photographers Gallery
2003 – Robert Sandleson Gallery, London, curated by Tom Morton of Frieze Magazine
Awards / Commissions
2018 – Represented Wales at the Interceltique Arts Festival, Lorient, France
2017 – Land/Sea received touring solo exhibition funds by Arts Council Wales
2015 – Creative Wales Award, awarded by Arts Council Wales more
2015 – Coastal Currents Artist in Residence at Oriel Y Parc/National Museum of Wales more
2014 – Arts Council Wales, Research Residency, Elan Valley Project
2009 – Christies HHA Commission, Winner Best Picture more
2007 – BBC 4 Arts Television. Featured Artist in documentary, Britain In Pictures
2002 – Commissioned by NextLevel Magazine for Breaking Oil, text by Bianca Jagger
2002 – Astral America Project Commissioned by Prada/Huntergather with Tom Hunter more
Publications
2017 – British Journal of Photography – online, Cross, Rannoch Moor, Scotland, 2009 more
2017 – Metamodernism Performatist Photography: Experiencing Beauty and Transcendence after Postmodernism
by Raul Eshelman, pp191-194 more
2017 – Chiaroscuro Magazine, Fine Art Exhibition Review more
2017 – Land/Sea exhibition catalogue published by Ffotogallery, edited by David Drake. Printed by Industria Grafica SIZ
2015 – CCQ Magazine, Issue 7, p62-p65 – Something Rich and Strange, interview with Emma Geliot on Venice Biennale more
2015 – Irenebrination, Human Debris and Flip-Flops Archives: Mike Perry’s ‘Môr Plastig’ at Venice Biennale
2013 – ICIA Exhibition Catalogue – Môr Plastig: introduction by Lindsay Hughes more
2013 – Skye Sherwin Review – Môr Plastig more
2009 – Exhibition Catalogue – The Earth Only Endures, words by Skye Sherwin more
2009 – NextLevel – Collectors Issue, In Conversation with Charles Dunstone, Edition 19 more
2009 – Next Level Magazine, September 2009, Below The Surface, feature
2009 – Gaia Magazine, September 2009 Germany, Front Cover, Beach 17 more
2009 – Greenpeace Magazine, July 20019, centre spread, Germany, Beach 9 more
2006 – The Poacher, Art Portfolio, GQ more
2005 – Abereiddi, by Craig Burnett, NextLevel Magazine more
2004 – Grand Canyon Forest. Article by Tom Morton in NextLevel Magazine, November 2004 more
2004 – Art Review Magazine. Beach 17, featured as part of review of Photo London, May 2004 more
2004 – Dazed & Confused Magazine. Page article and review of Beach work, May 2004
2004 – GREAT, The photographers’ Gallery Publication, Preview of April show, 2004
2004 – Arena Magazine. Feature on Beach and review of book, March 2004
2003 – Beach, essay by Craig Burnett, London: NextLevel and Thames & Hudson more
2003 – Cactus photograph published in NextLevel. as part of End Of Imagination article by Arundhati Roy, March 2003 more
2003 – Frankfurter Rundschau. Review of Abereiddi and Beach book, December 2003 more
2002 – Breaking Oil, ‘US Flag’, NextLevel Magazine, text by Bianca Jagger more
2002 – Front cover and 4 page editorial in first issue of NextLevel, February 2002 more