Michelle Teear was born in Sydney in 1984. She was awarded a Bachelor Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales in 2005. She is represented by Straitjacket, with her sixth solo show in May 2026.  

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Michelle’s intuitive mark-making  present visions of worlds that embrace her inner emotional landscapes as an entry to awareness beyond the dissociative states of navigating inequitable social structures. As a queer disabled woman, her remote landscape subjects represent freedom from marginalising frameworks, creating neutral spaces to anchor perspective. There is a calmness in calligraphic transparent brushstrokes that lead a slow journey through the landscape. She grinds earth pigments, mixed with egg, to create the timeless, translucent medium of egg tempera.

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Michelle has been a finalist in prizes including the Evelyn Chapman Award, Mosman, Paddington, Fisher’s Ghost, and MAC Yapang, and has completed numerous residencies including Mornington and Bundanon. A disability rights advocate, she lives and works on Awabakal Country, Lake Macquarie, Australia.