Natalie Papamichael (b. Slough, UK 1971) is a Contemporary Figurative Artist. She grew up in the UK and is of Greek and French heritage. Her work has developed from a dialogue between her personal experiences, her study of Art History and Psychoanalysis. She began exhibiting her work whilst living in Paris in the early 1990s and returned to the UK in 1996 to study. She studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. It was during this period that she became interested in the Feminist Artist of the 1970s and began creating her own performances. As a challenge to the exclusion of Women Artists from Art History and Academic Training and in order to combine her studio practice with her research she went to Angel Academy in Florence, Italy for a short course on the Classical Paintng techniques of the Old Masters. 

Whilst she has always referenced the political in her work, she was galvanized to move away from an overtly feminist message to a more explicitly political message, reflecting the current political climate. She has continued to use performance and self-portraiture with her work, creating new narratives and frequently referencing Fine Art, Literature and pertinent classic films such as La Jetêe, Fahrenheit 451, The Seventh Seal and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The curtailment of freedom speech meant that she has developed a way of working and communicating that her enabled her to try to circumvent censorship and to raise questions that were verbally being forbidden. In order to reach a wider audience and as another means of bypassing the attacks on our freedoms of speech she also began creating clothing, merging fashion with a political statement. 

Natalie Papamichael has her work in private collections and has exhibited widely. She has spoken about her practice as part of 'InPractice' at the Royal Academy of Art, London and 'Share Art' at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. She currently lives and works in Brighton, UK.