Despard Gallery is proud to share that the practice of contemporary painter Michael Vale is being celebrated with a major survey exhibition at the Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery.
The Cuckoo, the Herring, and the Trembling Tambourines brings together a large selection of Vale’s work sharing his unique painting practice, inviting us into a mysterious world of supposition, symbolism and the supernatural.
Combining the romantic traditions of painting with absurdist theatre, dark fiction and a mischievous sense of humour, Vale’s paintings become a stage where the natural and unnatural seamlessly blend, populated with eerie actors, taking the form of skeletons and faceless mummies.
By deliberately disrupting clear narrative readings, Vale creates scenes that hover between the familiar and the uncanny, inviting viewers into a world where meaning is unstable and tone constantly shifts.
A winner of the prestigious Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and a senior lecturer at Monash University for over 20 years, Vale combines painterly skill with a love of storytelling and visual trickery. His richly layered works offer audiences an imaginative space where theatre, literature and art collide.
Click here to view more details about the exhibition.
The exhibition open on 28 February and continues through until 31 May 2026
Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery
Civic Reserve, Dunns Road Mornington, Victoria 3931