Michael Michaeledes was born in Nicosia in 1923. He studied Architecture and Fine Arts at Milan University, Italy & Central Polytechnic, London. He began his artistic career as a self-taught painter, painting near-naturalistic landscapes before his work became increasingly abstracted. Even in his early paintings he has always been concerned with the effects of light and shade. By the end of the 1960s he had moved away from painting and started making shaped canvas reliefs, initially painted but later eliminating all colour in preference for bare canvas. The elimination of color came about by the artist's recognition of his formal inspiration: marble relief sculpture of the ancient Greeks.

In 1976 he represented Greece at the Venice Biennale. His work is held in museums, foundations and private collections all over the world.