Mike Mayhew was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 1999, he attended a foundation arts course at Hagley College, and in 2003 graduated in art and design from Christchurch Polytechnic.
In 2005, he founded the Christchurch Stuckists group, the first one of the movement in New Zealand.
In 2006, Mayhew was one of the artists in The Triumph of Stuckism, a show at Liverpool John Moores University Hope Street Gallery, curated by Naive John at the invitation of Professor Colin Fallows, Chair of Research at Liverpool School of Art and Design, and part of the Liverpool Biennial 2006.
According to Mayhew, Postmodernism is an anti-art movement: its goals are to shock and stun the viewer, and it degrades the quality and status of art to a pile of junk. It throws away any concept of beauty, and in place promotes all the negative destructive side of our culture.
Art, Mayhew believes, should awe and inspire the viewer, not create disgust. He says that art is a mirror of our culture but that it should reflect the best, not the worst. His art looks to nature and to the local past for inspiration. He says that his use of bright colours in paintings not only expresses the strong light of New Zealand, but also the optimism he wishes to express in his art.
