In 2001 he won an Iontas Small Works Drawing Award from Sligo Art Gallery, and has been awarded residencies at the Cill Riallaig Project Artists Retreat (2001, 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2013) and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (2014). Michael has held many solo exhibitions of his work, including Sligo Art Gallery (1999, 2001, 2005, and 2009), the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar (2005), the Ashford Gallery at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2009) (where his work has been selected for their Annual Exhibition since 2004), Draiocht (2011), The Model Sligo (2012, 2013), and the Cross Gallery, Dublin (2011, 2013). In 2006 he won the AXA Insurance Drawing Prize at the 176th RHA Annual, and was an invited artist there in 2009. Michael was awarded a fellowship from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in north Mayo in 2007, and also that year his work was selected for the “Emerging Artists” Exhibition at Boyle Arts Festival. In 2010 Michael’s work was selected by Hughie O’Donoghue for the Tom Caldwell Drawing Prize at the Royal Ulster Academy’s 129th Annual Exhibition. He was also honoured in winning the inaugural Rowel Friers Perpetual Trophy, also at the RUA’s Annual Show.
His work forms part of private collections internationally, and public collections nationwide, including Office of Public Works, Mayo County Council, Ballinglen Archive, Boyle Civic Collection, Fingal County Council, Beaumont Hospital and AXA Insurance. Michael is currently in residence in studio 5 The Model, Sligo, and is at present preparing for a major exhibition of large-scale drawings for the Solstice Arts Centre.