Michel Delgado maintains that his paintings do not emanate from a singular cause or have a specific catalyst. Although he is often asked about the ideas behind his work, he insists that he doesn’t start his creative process out of a thought, concern, or intellectual design of any kind. Reality is shocking enough, according to Delgado, and the very act of experiencing what already exists is both the fuel and engine of his particular approach to painting. He does not prefer any one experience over another. In fact, he makes a strong effort not to qualify or define his encounters and values them most for the gift of awareness.

"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. I fill my canvases with intense and basic colors, crisply painted shapes, and meticulous detail; I make work without conventional representational techniques; my work is free of metaphor, irony and paradox. I paint straightforward narratives, stories of my journey and memories of everyday experiences.

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

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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.