Quick Facts
Biography
Michael Upton (1938–2002) was born in Birmingham and after studying at the Birmingham College of Art he went on to the Royal Academy Schools where his friends included David Hockney. While he was still a student he was awarded a Leverhulme Scholarship and an Abbey Scholarship, which led him to study for a while in Rome. He was also the winner of the Cassandra Foundation Award (William Copley), New York, and a major South West Arts award. He exhibited widely, having several solo shows in London, mainly at the Anne Berthed Gallery, as well as in New York in 1987 at the Yale Centre for British Art and the Anthony Ralph Gallery in New York. He also took part in numerous group shows, from the First Day Covers exhibition in what was then the Newlyn Orion Gallery, in 1980, to Artists Against Apartheid at the Royal Festival Hall in 1985.
With his close friend, the painter Peter Lloyd Jones, he founded the performance art group 'London Calling, based at the Institute for Contemporary Art in London. He lived for many years in Mousehole, Cornwall, and died in Truro on 20 September 2002, aged 64.
His work is in the Arts Council Collection at the Southbank Centre in London, in the Government Art Collection, and in the British Council Collection. His artistic estate is represented by Messum's of London.