In Michael Harrington's vivid, mysterious and masterfully painted new canvases, the artist places his iconic male figures in a range of social habitats. The contemporary working world is reflected in a series of transient interiors and exteriors: hotel rooms, lobbies, boardrooms and barrooms, where men engage in ambiguous social rituals. He also places these elusive characters at leisure in dimly lit motels, South Florida vacation sites, recreational vehicles, and nighttime parking lots.
Harrington's abiding preoccupation is the depiction of the human form occupying suggestive, intimate narratives that invite viewer's empathy in scenes that are both familiar and enigmatic. Harrington's skillfully applies his representational craft to a broad range of subject matter including cinema, theatre, literature, music, family folklore, and personal memory.
Michael Harrington graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto in 1989. He has exhibited extensively in Canada and the United States. His work has been reviewed in Border Crossings magazine, the Globe and Mail, the Boston Globe and has been reproduced in Harper's magazine. Harrington's work can be found in the collections of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, the Canada Council Art Bank, as well as numerous corporate and private collections in North America and Europe. In 2007 Harrington was awarded a gold medal from the Canadian National Magazine Awards for a painting commissioned by Toro Magazine. He lives and works in Ottawa.