Mike Finlay

Born 1982, Worcester, I studied art and gained a BA(hons) at Newcastle University and an MA (Distinction) Fine Art at Northumbria University.
I have since continued to exhibit in group and solo exhibitions, with exhibitions across the UK and Europe, and collections held in the UK, Norway, Japan, Denmark, France and Brazil.
I am a contemporary painter based in North East England, working at the intersection of abstraction, figuration, and visual noise. My practice is rooted in the shifting surfaces of urban environments, places where marks are made, fade, and are replaced, reflecting the transient nature of experience as we move through towns and cities. I am interested in how these surfaces act as informal archives of human presence, constantly rewritten through time, weather, and interaction.
I build my paintings through layers of gesture, text, and fragmented imagery, drawing on the constant collision between what we see and what we think. Snatches of overheard conversation, fragments of news, and the persistent presence of social media all feed into the work. These influences are not directly illustrated but absorbed, processed, and reconfigured into a visual language that feels both familiar and unstable. I am particularly inte...

MA (Distinction) Fine Art Northumbria University,
BA (Hons) Newcastle University

Exhibitions: Baltic 39, Newcastle, Creative Cohesion, Sunderland, British Embassies Norway, Japan, Brazil, Whitley Art Festival, Worcester, Theatre Gallery, The Mark Contemporary Art Gallery, Soho, Hatton Art Gallery, Newcastle, Long Gallery, Newcastle, King's Worcester Gallery, Worcester.