2014 – 2021, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava ,in the Studio of Free Printmaking, led by  Prof. R. Jančovič. During his studies he completed a residency of several months in Tokyo at the University of Arts Tokyo (Geidai). In 2026 he is a finalist in the Painting Competition. He lives and works in Bratislava.

A debutant in the Competition, Michal Šumichrast moves on the borderlines of painting, drawing and graphic art, reflecting on the forms of contemporary society with irony, humour and visual exaggeration. He is interested in themes of power, identity, toxic masculinity and capitalism, blending in references to pop culture, history, and subcultures. Characteristically he engages in subversive postmodern play, striking figuration, and an aesthetic consciously balancing between kitsch, memetics, and artistic stylisation. With Šumichrast, humour is never merely for entertainment. Via an ironic and absurd shift, his works become an instrument of social criticism; they uncover the absurdity of stereotypes, ideologies, and notions of success, power and masculinity. In his latest works he focuses on the visual world of hypermasculinity (muscled bodies, luxury, internet myths and testosterone fantasies), which he subjects to irony and critical analysis. 

His final work He Probably Doesn’t Even Care About Domestic Terrorist Organizations (2026) is part of a series of paintings devoted to the phenomenon of macho, ranging to toxic, masculinity, and its expression in different social settings, from corporate culture to the milieu of extreme right-wing ideologies. Šumichrast draws attention to the parallels between models of behaviour based on dominance, performance and power, which despite their differing contexts have similar mechanisms. The central figure in the painting is an aged man, once an embodiment of physical power and the male ideal, today condemned to passive observation of a world from which he has dwindled away. Instead of triumph, what comes upon him is disillusion and the feeling of wasted opportunity. Via a specific figure, Šumichrast thus creates an image of male identity and highlights the emptiness of models of masculinity based on power, control and social status.