Michel Delgado was born on the West Coast of Africa, in Dakar, Senegal. Throughout the 1980s, he lived in Paris, exploring and participating in the major European city’s art scene. Pursuing artmaking from a young age, his paintings have become an outlet for inquiry, honesty, and memory. 

The painter immigrated to the United States in 1988, setting up a studio in Massachusetts. Delgado now works and creates in his studios in Chicago and South Florida, and frequently travels the country for his exhibitions. His work has become widely known in the past decade, acquired by private collectors and included in prestigious public collections throughout the U.S.

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Senegal born artist Michel Delgado insists that he starts his creative process without thought, concern, or intellectual design of any kind. Instead, the very act of experiencing what already exists fuels his candid, deeply personal approach to painting. Filling his canvases with intense, primary colors, crisp shapes, and meticulous detail, Delgado's work tells stories of his journey through life and memories of everyday experiences.

"Growing up in Senegal, life and art shared the same space. They were indistinguishable. As a young boy, I learned that art is the tool I have for a direct and honest conversation with my own heart. Art has always been my rescuer, my liberator – creatively, emotionally, spiritually. I’m a self-taught painter, able to create in any media, always painting work that is straightforward and personal, work coming from a place within me that is constantly loud and growing.

My work has been called naive. Everything I create and paint comes through my relationship with the world around me, my direct response to my fantasies, my wonder and my spiritual growth. No journey in my life remains as straightforward as painting."

- Michel Delgado