RealSTUDIO Information

Canadian, Toronto-based pop artist Michelle Vella is known for her colourful, bold and energetic portrayals of pop culture icons and things. With a degree in fine arts and a history working in graphic design, she made a career change in 2015 to pursue art full-time. Instagram propelled near instant success of her wide big eye portraits on the NY fashion scene. She soon began painting on large square canvases, selling her portraits of such pop icons as Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, and Twiggy to collectors worldwide. In 2020, Vella began exploring a new style beyond big eyes, taking a colourful quasi-realistic approach to her portraits while embarking on painting pop culture objects that she calls “Pop-Comforts”. Starting with a retro box of Kraft Dinner, a jar of Nutella, a Monopoly game box, to a Twister game spinner to name a few. Michelle is bursting with fun ideas and can hardly paint fast enough. Vella has had an aptitude for drawing since she was young enough to hold a crayon. Since childhood, she’s always been considered the talented artist in her class. Graduating university with a Fine Arts BA in 1986, “the starving artist stigma did not sit well with my entrepreneurial spirit.” So, with that, she pursued art related careers and some not so related, allowing her to develop skills in sales, marketing and business. Thirty years into her career, Vella chose to become an artist and has since been noticed by several notable celebrities and collectors.