Most galleries I go to have displays of Pre-Raphelite art. Pale, distant depictions of the past that I admire but can never fully relate to. But recently I was lucky to be invited to view a new exhibit in Birmingham at the Midlands Art Centre in Cannon Hill Park, which allowed me to truly stand there and feel.

Marcia Michael: The Family Album is the first major solo exhibition by London-based multidisciplinary artist Marcia Michael, and it is described as a ‘massive love letter’ to family, celebrating the sense of belonging and joy found through family connections. Featuring shots of her mother, sister, children, and father, we see a family album that is so much like our own and yet so very different.

The exhibit is focused on three different series, dating from 2009 to 2025: ‘The Study of Kin’, ‘The Family Album’, and ‘The Object of My Gaze’. These moving collections, archived as a revolutionary act of remembrance, display Michael’s ongoing journey to reconnect with and preserve memory, love and identity.