About
Michael Ginsborg was born in 1943 in London, which is where he lives and works now. After studying at the Central and Chelsea Schools of Art he held his first one person show at the Lisson Gallery in 1970. He has had one person exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery in 1973 and at the Acme Gallery in 1980. He first showed with Benjamin Rhodes in 1985 and during the 1990’s held several significant exhibitions at this gallery. Subsequently he exhibited at the Drawing Gallery in London, at the Galleria Immaginaria in Florence, and at the Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives. He showed in the ‘Artist of the Day’ series in 2018 at Flowers Gallery in London, selected by Keith Milow. His most recent one person exhibition was ‘Field Notes’ at Benjamin Rhodes Arts in Shoreditch, London in 2022.
Group Exhibitions include ‘Six British Artists’ at the Dubose Gallery, Houston,1976; ‘British Painting’, Royal Academy of Arts, 1977; The British Art Show 1979-80 ; ‘Three Painters’ Camden Arts Centre,1986; John Moores Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1994 and 2016; International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Florence 1997; ‘Drawing Inspiration’ Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal 2006; ‘Mini – Meta’ Beardsmore Gallery, London 2009; ‘Transparency,’ Walker Art Gallery , Liverpool, 2017; ‘Paperworks’ Benjamin Rhodes Arts, London 2023. Michael Ginsborg continues to be represented by Benjamin Rhodes, benjamin@benjaminrhodes.co.uk.
Commissions include:- Glaxo Wellcome Medicines Research Centre, Stevenage, commissioned by Contemporary Art Society Projects; Linklaters Alliance, Shire House, London, commissioned by Lynne Stern Associates.
Public collections include The Government Art Collection, The British Council; Arts Council England; Leicestershire Education Authority; The National Museum of Wales; York City Art Gallery; Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery; Whitworth Gallery, University of Manchester; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield; Swansea City Art Gallery; Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery; St Thomas’ Hospital, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Gallery, Budapest.
Encounters No. 18, collage, acrylic, coloured pencils, graphite and archival marker pens, 24 x 17 cm, 2021
Wills Lane Gallery (press release)
MICHAEL GINSBORG COLLAGE, 12th October - 2nd November 2008
Michael Ginsborg has made collage for over thirty years. He uses it as a way of disrupting the formal narratives of abstraction, juxtaposing elements that have different origins and histories. He is an inveterate collector of scraps and remnants, gathering things that have been overlooked and have no value to anyone except himself. Whilst he may choose something without a specific outcome in mind, there is an ever-present fantasy of the role it might play in generating images. The materials range from discarded packaging and photographic images to things he has made. Assembling and re-assembling these elements over long periods of time Ginsborg dates his work at the point of completion. He uses collage as a way of registering his passage in the world, giving form to his memory of place and his relationship with time. By incorporating the unpredictable, and working on the edge of intention, Ginsborg generates meanings that question the nature of recognition.