MICHELE MARCOUX is an artist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and lived in Vermont, Philadelphia, California and New York City before moving to Scotland in 1990. Michele received a BA Fine Art (cum laude) from Bennington College, Vermont, and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. She completed a Masters of Letters Fine Art Practice (with Distinction) at Glasgow School of Art in 2016.
In the 1980’s Michele lived in New York City, in Tribeca, Harlem, the Lower East Side, and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Like most artists, she has worked to support her creative practice, variously as a waitress, bookbinder, wood finisher, plant maintenance person, jewellery designer, painter of wildlife figurines, web designer and project manager. In the 80’s and 90’s she created bespoke jewellery from paper and resin which sold across the USA (at Barney’s New York and Macy’s), Puerto Rico and Japan.
In 1990 Michele left New York City to live on a sheep farm in Angus, Scotland before moving to Edinburgh. After having two children she retrained as a Web Designer becoming a Web Producer then Account Director in Edinburgh and London. From 2006 – 2020 she was Project Manager of Screen Academy Scotland, a collaboration between Edinburgh Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art which delivered postgraduate filmmaking.
Alongside employment, Michele has always worked and exhibited as an artist.
In 2010 she collaborated with award-winning US Disability Poet Sheila Black on Continental Drift an exhibition of painting, drawing, poetry, and performance at Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh.
In 2013 working again with Sheila Black and NY-based sound artist Lynne Thermann, Michele created and curated film, sound, poetry, painting and installation for blood/MarcyAV at the Ambulance Depot in Edinburgh which looked at the artists’ experiences as young women in 1980′s Williamsburg, a time when drugs were rife and murder rates soared.
In 2014 Michele had a solo exhibition of painting, installation and video Hag-ridden, at Summerhall, in Edinburgh which was inspired by archetypes from Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Italian Giallo horror and Shirley Jackson’s novels.
In 2015 Michele created Fan of Memory/Profane Illuminations, a site-specific installation for the Hidden Door Festival in Edinburgh combining1970’s porn and advertising, reclaimed glass, moving image and sound, to deconstruct memories of childhood and femininity.
In 2017-18 Michele developed GYRE, an installation of found objects and drawings created from hundreds of PET plastic balloons she collected over an 8-year period from a beach on Block Island, Rhode Island. The project looked at melancholy, our desire for objects, for home and its impact on the environment. GYRE was exhibited at Science Festivals in Glasgow and at the Edinburgh College of Art Tent Gallery.
In 2019 Michele was one of 6 international artists selected for the Taking Time/Prendendo Tempo residency at The Museum of Loss and Renewal, Collemacchia, Italy, where she developed the project Casser Maison.
In 2021 she was funded by Creative Scotland for, Creating a Pandemic Imaginary, a residency at MERZ Gallery, Sanquhar Scotland, creating paintings and timelapse video in the landscape.
In 2021-22 she was selected for Ecologies of Displacement, a British Council/Creative Scotland funded international residency between Scotland and Pakistan which involved a month’s travel in Pakistan. The work from the residency was exhibited at Koel Gallery, Karachi and Summerhall, Edinburgh.
In the summer of 2023, Michele spent two months solo travelling on a self-directed residency in the countryside of Aragon, Spain. The work from this residency was developed into ETERNAL RETURN, a solo exhibition at The Scottish Arts Club that took place in April 2024.