Michael Peck, artist and academic, was born in Melbourne in 1977; he was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Art (honours) (Painting) from Monash University and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since 1998. Peck layers visual motifs that challenge dichotomies; addressing complex concepts of identity, culture, innocence, power; and the place of the individual within a pluralist society. Peck's hyper-real painting frequently intersects with street art aesthetics, post-apocalyptic imagery, nineteenth century photographic landscape and portraiture formats, and recently, patterning from luxury interior and textile designs.
Peck won the National Gallery of Victoria's Trustees Award in 1998 and the Metro Art Award in 2005. A finalist in the 2010 Dobell Drawing Prize and the 2012 Archibald Prize, he was awarded a highly commended in the Doug Moran National Portrait prize the same year. In 2013 Peck won the People's Choice Nillumbik Art Prize, Melbourne and in 2014 he was a finalist for both the John Leslie Landscape Art Prize and the Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize. Peck is also a three-time Sulman prize finalist, in 2013, 2014 and in 2017 – with the striking work Therefore I am.
In 2015 Peck exhibited Recruit #6 and Recruit (Self Portrait in the image of my son), both created in 2012, in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition In the Flesh. He has also worked on large scale public art and mural formats across Australia and internationally. Peck’s work is held in collections throughout Australia, and in London, New York and Hong Kong.
