Born at the beginning of history's most "wonderful/radical " decade, in the mighty burb of Croydon. Michael Stylianou grew up a cheery and fun-loving, he had fleeting thoughts of Orthodontistry, Physiotherapy, Cultural Politics and Internation Superstardom.

It wasn't until the last few years of High School that he was offered the opportunity of combining his VCE studies with a two year Tafe course that [upon successful completion] awarded graduates a Certificate IV in Applied Design. This course offered a broad creative education for students whose professional ambition was specifically art/design based.

Michael's immersion in this amazing course [whose subjects included Life Drawing, Design Technology, 2-D/3-D studies, Printmaking and Photography]; inspired him to follow his newfound passion for the Printed Image -both Printmaking and Photography.

In his mind the catalyst moment occurred one afternoon in a tedious mathematics class, after a solid printing session in the darkroom, Michael's mind began to wander. The chemicals on his clothes became extremely potent...then like a skeleton trying to leave it's body -he needed out -now! It became abundantly clear that there is absolutely no place in this world for a kid like him to be resisting his creative urges and try to rationalise his existence by writing numbers his entire life.

So upon graduation of both the VCE and the ACD [Advanced Certificate of Design] and being the fortunate recipient of the school's only two photographical awards and placement in the National Gallery of Victoria's "Top Cats 1999", it was time for him to follow the silver grained road...which led to one place : The Victorian College of the Arts.

During his extensive three year tuition at the VCA, Michael was not only allowed complete creative freedom in his image making, but also the opportunity to observe and investigate the Metropolis of Melbourne; something that had absolutely fascinated him during all of his years as a far-eastern suburban kid. He immediately focused all of his attention on the city of Melbourne, especially at night and especially the areas that have such rich significance and importance in the day, but seemingly transform nocturne.

Although 6 bodies of work were produced during this time at the VCA, they are relative, and document a logical progression from large format Black and White Nocturnal Urban "stages", to specific medium format Colour investigations of those areas, which according to him "transform".

Post Graduation, Mr Stylianou embarked on his personal mission to once again break his personal comfort zone - or either to delay his career and travel and live in Brooklyn, New York for six months. With the much appreciated help from a few of his international contacts there, he was able to forge a personal ID card and live on campus in the gorgeous Clinton Hill for half of his stay -thus again giving him the extremely fortunate opportunity of experiencing international "college life", before he travelled the majority of Western Europe until late November 2002.

Having newly-found endless homesickness for Croydon and general democracy upon his travels, he has recently found himself returning to his initial elements of design and printmaking. At this very moment he is devising a plan for the successful marriage of Print-Photo-Design into something that evolves beyond the initial image making experience. Keep in Touch, kids.

The artist owes immense gratitude and would sincerely like to thank those that have both inspired and develop him to this very moment.

22 group and 2 individual shows to date.