The painter, sculptor, and architect Michalis Michaelides was born in Nicosia in 1923, into a family of seafarers and artists. From 1955 onwards, he lived and worked in London, where he passed away in 2015.
He painted and wrote poetry from a young age. He studied painting and architecture in Milan and at the Central Polytechnic in London.He constructed numerous buildings and private residences in Greece and abroad, frequently collaborating with his brother, the civil engineer Renos Michaelides.His early paintings are realistic, depicting scenes of everyday life. Gradually, he turned toward geometric abstraction, focusing his interest primarily on the function of light upon surfaces. In 1964, he expanded his artistic explorations into the field of collage.
His painting was honored with several distinctions, including the Europe Prize for Painting in Belgium in 1971. In 1954, he received the Philadelphio Panhellenic Poetry Prize.
He held over 40 solo exhibitions in Europe (including London, Rome, Belfast, Milan, Amsterdam, Paris, and Bristol) and participated in more than 80 group exhibitions worldwide (e.g., the Acireale Biennale 1969 and Bolzano Biennale 1969, Athens, Amsterdam, Dublin, Zurich, Thessaloniki, Nicosia, London, Milan, Belfast, Bristol, New York, Oxford, Paris, Rome, Salzburg, and Turin). He represented Greece at the Venice Biennale in 1976, alongside Aglaia Liberaki. A major retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation in Nicosia in 2012.
His works are held in many public and private institutions, collections, and museums (e.g., the National Gallery–Alexandros Soutzos Museum, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the American College of Greece, the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, the A. G. Leventis Foundation, the Israel Museum, The Municipal Gallery Dublin, The Arts Council of Great Britain, and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Caracas, among others).