Hello, I am Michael Lacey, an artist, curator, musician, tinkerer etc based in Liverpool, UK. My work (mostly but not entirely in collage and painting) is shaped by nostalgia, surrealism, dreams, literature, cinema and the work of Max Ernst, René Magritte & Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
I am the the manager of independent bookshop Dead Ink Books and director of OUTPUT Gallery, which exclusively platforms creatives who are from or based in Liverpool.
This website is a fairly exhaustive catalogue of work and projects. I don't expect anyone to look at it all. That aspect is mostly for my own benefit. Please buy something in the shop, though.
Shipping Information
Orders will be posted weekly. P&P costs are high because I'm paranoid about something getting bashed up in transit but you can also collect orders from the bookshop where I work for free if you're based in Liverpool.
Shipping is currently limited to the UK, but overseas delivery may be available (Brexit). If this affects you, or if you'd like to enquire about purchasing a piece not currently listed in the shop - please send me a message via the contact page.
Artist / Curator
b. 1985
Bookshop & Community Manager, Dead Ink Books, 2023 - present
Director of OUTPUT Gallery 2021 - present
Gallery coordinator, Bluecoat 2017 - 2019
Founder / co-curator Little Man Gallery 2016 - 2018
Lecturer in Art & Design, City of Liverpool College, 2019 - 2021
Glasgow School of Art, Painting & Printmaking, 2009
PGDE Further Education, Hope University, 2020
Solo Exhibitions
Michael Lacey - OUTPUT Gallery, Liverpool, 2018
A Hole, A Mountain - A Small View, Liverpool, 2016
New Mythologies - Editions, Liverpool, 2015
Explorers - Arena Studios & Gallery, Liverpool, 2012
Innards - Pipe Factory, Glasgow, 2012
Selected Group Exhibitions
The John Moores Painting Prize - Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2023
Shuffle Selects - Roscoe Street, Liverpool, 2022
Now We're Talking - The Pie Factory, Margate, 2020
A Little Painting Show - OA Studios & Gallery, Manchester, 2019
Liverpool, 2028 - Dot-Art Gallery with Bido Lito, Liverpool, 2019
Light Blue - The Royal Standard, Liverpool, 2019
A Little Painting Show - Arena Studios & Gallery, Liverpool, 2018
The Garden of Resistance - Metal, Liverpool, 2017
The Sound Of Grown Up Children Determined Not To Be Afraid - ICW, Blackpool, 2017
Life Babies - 12o Collective, London, 2016
New Paintings - Washington Boardroom, Glasgow, 2016
Liverpool Open - Editions, Liverpool, 2015 (awarded first prize)
Bam Bam Bam - The Royal Standard, Liverpool 2016
Incubarte 7 - Valencia, 2015
Lustre Fabrics - Saltaire Arts Trail, 2015
Pure Ideology Personal Brand Workshop - LEGION TV, London, 2014
Associate Artists - Trispace Gallery, London, 2014
Not Arsed - Drop the Dumbulls, Liverpool, 2013
After The Flood - Mello Mello, Liverpool, 2013
Fantastic Beasts - Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, 2010
RSA New Contemporaries - Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2010
Glasgow School of Art Degree Show - Glasgow School of Art, 2009
Commissions
40th Anniversary Mural - Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow, 2011
Book covers for Dead Ink Books:
- The Night Visitors - Jenn Ashworth & Richard V. Hirst, 2017
- The Unauthorised Biography of Ezra Maas - Daniel James, 2017
- Guest - SJ Bradley, 2017
- Three Dreams in the Key of G - Marc Nash 2017
Residencies / Publications
Remote Residency - METAL Liverpool, 2021
Online residency - The White Pube, 2020
Tameside Archive Centre (supported by Greater Manchester City Council), 2019
The Cockeyed Turkey Activity Book, Risotto Press, 2011
Innards - 20 page comic book commissioned by Yuck'n'Yum, 2011
Writing
Mountain Man - Short story for Hoax Publication, 2020
Gated Community - co-writer with Laura Yuile, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (online programme), 2020
Down The Black River - essay for symposium on Crime Fiction at Bluecoat, 2015
Other
Artist's Mentor - Blue Room, Bluecoat, 2022
Instagram Live Interview with Zarina Muhammad, Pages Of Hackney, 2021
Tzuzjj - Crit-a-Oke - Performance lecture, Bluecoat, Liverpool 2016
Artist talk at Liverpool John Moore's University, 2013
Guest host: Rough Trade Irregulars on Soho Radio, 2023
Curatorial Projects
OUTPUT Gallery
2024:
Blonde Supper Club - Plow & Plate
Will Daw - God’s Toilet
Liverpool Improvisation Collective & Tommy Husband - First On The Heel
2023:
Callan Waldron Hall & Jacques Verkade - say when you can feel it
OUTPUT Painting Open '23
OUTPUT Sculpture Open '23
OUTPUT Photography Open '23 (with Declan Connolly)
2022:
George Welch - The Cost of Living
Gareth Kemp - Brutal Abstraction
Zackarea Bakir - Shwaya, Shwaya
Howard & Honey Storey - Storeybookland
Zahra - Phantom Fairy Tales
Dreamchord - Soulweight
Ellie Hoskins - Everything! Is! Futile!
Ciaran Wood
Aline Costa & Tommy Husband - Unease
Kiara Mohamed Amin - Scouse Republic
Collected Postal Exhibitions
Victoria Opomu
Studio Me & You
Millie Chesters
David Blandy, Gabrielle de la Puente & Harriet Burns - Lost Eons: Haven of Aves
2021:
Golden Harvest Industries
Donal Moloney
Podge
Mali Draper & Dan Waine - Down Through The Clouds & Back Again
Radical Womxn’s Dance Party & C.A.P.E - Fire To The Prisons
Leo Fitzmaurice - Circus Goes Around
Hassnat Sikander
Sumuyya Khader
Aušra Kleizaite & Irene Izquierdo - The Architecture Of The Journey
Hilan Gully - Voices
OUTPUT Painting Open 2021
OUTPUT Video Open 2021
Leo Fitzmaurice - Circus Goes Around
The OUTPUT Radio Show on Melodic Distraction (1hr monthly episodes July 2022 - May 2023)
Little Man Gallery:
Phillip M Williams, Spare Room Residency, 2018
Henry Yang, Space Studios, London, 2018
Human Pony, Make, Liverpool, 2017
Somnath Bhatt, 2017
Oscar Godfrey, A Small View, Liverpool, 2017
Other
Situational Aesthetics - Air Space, Liverpool, 2014
Events at Dead Ink Bookshop
Over 50 events staged since 2022 both at the bookshop and off-site at venues including Bluecoat, Granby Winter Garden, Sefton Park Palm House, Handyman's Brewery & METAL Edge Hill.
Invited speakers have included;
Pitymilk Press, Nick Bano, Maya Chowdhry, Dr Sofia Rehman, Andrea Ku, Marie-Anne McQuay, Richard King, John Robb & Roger Hill, Genevieve Jagger, Lizala Vi / House of Saturn, Marieke Bigg & Caroline Crampton, Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, Jennifer Belle & Rose Ruane, Aura Garcia Junco, Jessi Jezewska Stevens, Caleb Nichols, & Day Mattar, Catherine Lacey, David Hering, Marijam Did, Tawseef Khan, Laura Bui, Leah Cowan & Laura Harris, Andres N Ordorica & Josh Coates, Blonde Supper Club, Gerardo Samano Cordova, Alex Pheby, Alex Niven & Tom Hazeldine, Sophie K Rosa & Laura Yuile, John Reppion & Mark Penman, Preti Taneja & Priya Sharma, Polly Barton & Zarina Muhammad, Dan Coxon & Oliver K Langmead, Frances Disley, So Mayer & Joan Burnett, Jen Calleja & Robin Munby, Alison Rumfitt & Gabrielle de la Puente, Rachel O'Dwyer & Maitreyi Maheshwari, Anna Bogutskaya, Jeff Young, Richard Phoenix & Blue Room, In Atoms, Lili Holland Fricke, Thea Lenarduzzi, Dr Sophie Oliver, Noemi Kiss-Deaki, Alex Bollen, Adam Scovell & Andy Miller, Tim Worthington & Justin Lewis, Andre Marmot & Ni Maxine, Mark Bowles, Roy Claire Potter, David Jacques, Harriet Morley, Roo Dhissou.