Bio
Mike Chambers is known for his subtly narrative paintings of solitary figures and his haunting and colorful interiors. Born in Italy, Mike was raised in Europe and the United States where his experiences of art made a deep impression on him.
At the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Mike’s teachers provided encouragement and high expectations. A highlight of his early training was working in the studio of New Orleans artist Emery Clark. After receiving a fellowship at Yale Norfolk School of Art, Mike completed degrees at Louisiana State University, Purdue University and Queens College. His work has been exhibited all over the US, including Indiana, New York, Virginia, Idaho and Louisiana. Mike established a long term business relationship with the Carol Robinson Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana where his art is currently represented.
Mike and his wife Melissa “Sasi” Chambers banded together with a group of local Boise artists to form the Treasure Valley Artists Alliance, a non-profit with a mission to serve local artists. His involvement in TVAA provided opportunities to collaborate with artists and to raise awareness of the local art scene, and in 2013 Mike was instrumental in TVAA’s award of a grant to produce the Local Color exhibition and catalog commemorating Boise’s Sesquicentennial Celebration.
His paintings have been the subject of numerous solo shows in New Orleans and Boise, including most recently the Character Development exhibition at Boise State University’s Trueblood pop-up gallery in 2021, the Ghost Hunting exhibition at Evermore Prints in Boise in 2017, and Houseghosts at the Carol Robinson Gallery in New Orleans in 2016, Louisiana. The City of Boise commissioned Mike to create an image for a traffic control box in 2017 — you can see his image entitled Corner of the Neighborhood at the corner of Main and 23rd Streets. Mike was honored to receive grants in 2020 and 2021 from the Alexa Rose Foundation and the Idaho Commission on the Arts.
