The art of human experience

Michael Armstrong is a benevolent figurative artist, painter and art photographer passionate about the human form and humankind. Armstrong aims to convey a deep inner emotional expression through his work rather than only describing the external form. He creates emotive allegories based on themes of love, loss, pain, shame and hope. His contemporary works draw on real-life situations, a wealth of literary sources, and intensely personal, psychological symbolism. Armstrong has a strong social conscience, and his works engage deeply with humanitarian issues. His art is an expression of a moment and a reflection of a lifetime. 

Armstrong was born in 1976 and was raised just outside of Melbourne, Victoria. The second of four siblings, Armstrong inherited his love of art and reading from his mother, Lynne Armstrong, who encouraged his interest by taking him to local galleries and libraries and giving him pencils and sketchbooks. He spent his adolescence reading, drawing, painting and writing short stories, notorious for doodling and sketching constantly in the margin of his notebooks at school. He also keenly practised martial arts from a young age, eventually finding Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), the art he still practices and teaches today. Armstrong graduated from Niddrie Secondary College in 1994 with a dux in art and studio art. His graduation work was exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of the VCE Top Arts exhibition 1994.

He graduated from the University of Ballarat in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts – Painting, influenced by his contact with painters Doug Wright and Iain Reid. At this time, he fathered two children, Corey and Elysha Armstrong, who are now budding creative artists in their own right. He explored a range of further art courses, but had a burning desire to see the world and experience life more broadly. In 1998, Armstrong decided to enlist in the Australian Army. This decision saw him actively serve his country for 23 years and supplied the subject matter and connections for many of his works and collections.

In the Australian Defence Force, Armstrong served in several roles and completed four operational tours. He continued to draw and paint during his career. While on tour in Afghanistan, he was shocked to witness that ‘an outsider’ was commissioned to attend a place of war and paint their interpretation of the situation instead of seeking a veteran artist's view. He began questioning the outsiders who could paint a picture representing the situation without being veterans themselves. In response, he started his Master of Arts - Creative Arts with the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) in 2015. Armstrong aimed to re-engage with academics and artists through the process to expand the scope of his art practice and deepen his theoretical and technical mastery. During this time, he also authored and published his first novel, Brothers Blood.

Armstrong returned from Iraq in 2016 and immediately began unifying and expressing his ‘Artist as Veteran’ persona. This initiated several works in 2016, including Death of the Bystander 2016, Six Ways to Kill 2016, Kill House 2016, Destruction 2016, Formation 2016, Breathe 2016 and Armstrong's prized work Relics of Decay 2016. The works included collections of drawings, ceramic blades, wire, wood and paintings and explored themes of service and sacrifice. The works portrayed the veteran experience more deeply and raised Armstrong's experience and others. They were exhibited in 2016 as collections accompanied by performance art. This raised contentious issues about the marginalisation of war art and challenged the social presumption that art and veteran (Armstrong) were separate identities, versus embracing the two halves as a whole. This subject matter was at the heart of Armstrong's Master's exegesis.

In the same year, Armstrong completed his Master's of Engineering - Cyber with the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He was awarded the Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing in 2016 for his work Traits of the Living (Dying) - graphite on paper, and was a finalist in the Queensland Figurative Art Prize for his work Imposition II - oil on linen. In 2017, Armstrong was a finalist in the Manning Art Prize (Naked and Nude) for his work Disquiet II - oil on linen and a finalist in the Australian War Memorial Napier Waller Art Prize 2018 for Relics of Decay 2016.

Armstrong studied martial arts for most of his life and holds black belts in several arts, including Karate and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). In 2017, he was awarded his BJJ Black Belt by John Will after many years of travel, training and teaching the art. He moved to Canberra then and established a professional art studio at the Australian National Capital Artists facility in Mitchell. Armstrong created several works, including Australian War Memorial Napier Waller Art Prize 2020 highly commended finalist Observers of Being 2018 - oil on linen and finalist in the Tom Bass Figurative Art Prize 2020 for bronze sculpture Natal 2016.

Over time, Armstrong suffered severe post-traumatic stress (PTSD) due to his service and his military career ended in 2021. He turned to photographic art and used tactile substances as a creative outlet and a way to express the feelings, individual horrors and suffering he and others were exposed to as a consequence of military service. This experience inspired his award-winning and critically acclaimed photographic works, Voices of Veterans 2021. The collection comprises of 52 photographic works in which veterans openly express their personal experience living with PTSD. This was portrayed as veterans covering themselves in molasses and talking with Armstrong about their lives as he photographed them. The heavy, sticky, dark, tactile substance acts as a metaphor for their personal experience living with PTSD. The works draw on stagnant psychological narratives of heaviness, despair, self-loathing and destruction as an overwhelming and inescapable force. With their exposing imagery and striking colour, the works draw on archetypes of Australian military personnel to suggest the futility of service. Several works picture veterans cleaning themselves of the metaphor in monochromes, changing the tone of personal expression as we witness the psychological process through the dark towards healing, hope and light. The powerful and confronting collection of works is balanced in approach and has sparked thousands of conversations and helped individuals. The Voices of Veterans collection has been exhibited around Australia in Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. His Excellency, General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) and Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley are joint patrons of the collection, now a veteran health not for profit project in it's own right in partnership with the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM).

Today, Armstrong is an active artist mentor who proactively works with galleries, universities and organisations. With recognised expertise in Engineering and the Arts, in 2023 Armstrong was invited to the role of Artist in Residence with the University of Canberra (UC). Armstrong offers dual perspectives across art and engineering to challenge research outcomes and perceptions through artistic expression with a moral and philosophical lens.

In 2024, Armstrong established Rogue BJJ, driving his belief in mental and physical health through martial arts. He is currently working on a series of diverse female figurative works made from Italian oil-based clay, and he is undertaking his PhD exploring art constructs that discuss how robotics and AI impact and influence humankind.

Armstrong works from his public art studio in Canberra's Inner North suburb of Lyneham. This public art studio is now a shared community-driven well-being hub centred around movement, mindfulness, creativity, and connection. The hub offers Michaels art, formal public and private art training, Holistic Yoga by Flow and Food Yoga & Ayurveda, and martial arts by Rogue Jujitsu.