Michelle Stuart is an American artist born in California. She studied in Mexico, France and in New York at The New School for Social Research. Since the 1960’s, Stuart has created a multifaceted body of work including large-scale earth works, complex multi-media installations, earth drawings, encaustic paintings, sculptural objects, drawings and prints. Stuart has also written and published artists books.

Her work references a range of influences, from history, biology, botany and her extensive travels to ancient sites of archaeology.

Stuart pioneered the utilization of organic mediums such as earth, wax, seeds, and plants to the vertical surface experience. These works that go beyond the bounds of traditional artistic resources articulate the complex processes through a language of exploration of both the physicality of materials and cultural and scientific issues not generally thought of in the vocabulary of art. The changes that take place in organic matter, the extinction series and the series on genetic variation, explore scientific issues that provide a new art vocabulary.

Stuart has exhibited widely. Her work can be found in museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago).

Stuart currently lives and works in New York City and Amagansett, New York.