Michel Droge (they/them)

Title and Institution: Lecturer in Art and Visual Culture, Bates College, Maine, USA

Michel Droge is a painter and printmaker whose work engages with the environment and ideas of multi-species, non-binary, and entangled life systems. Inspired by landscape, mapping, and environmental research, their abstract paintings, and drawings visually unravel existing systems and make way for emerging new ones. They model a queer matrix in conversation with nineteenth-century landscape schools, philosophers, and naturalists. Michel’s practice includes collaborative engagement with scientific researchers, conservation groups, and communities, and they are the founder and mentor of SEVEN – Artists’ Collective. Michel is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation award, a co-recipient of a Kindling Fund grant, and three Maine Arts Commission grants. They have been awarded fellowships and residencies at Surfpoint Foundation, Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Hewnoaks Residency, The Tides Institute, The Joseph Fiore Foundation, The Stephen Pace House, and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. Their work has been included in national and international exhibitions, including The Cue Art Foundation, Bates College Art Museum, University of Maine, Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, Maine Jewish Museum, Boston University, and Brandeis University. They have a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from Maine College of Art and are currently faculty at Bates College.

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