Mike Howat is a painter working between NH and Greenville, SC. His work investigates themes of urbanization, Americana, and collective memory, often through the lens of architectural forms. Buildings and built environments act as vessels in his paintings—conduits for exploring regional identity, personal history, and the evolution of place.

He earned his B.F.A. from the New Hampshire Institute of Art in 2014 and has exhibited nationally, with recent shows at Cove Street Arts, Greenhut Galleries (Portland, ME), the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, Nahcotta, Talon Gallery (Portland, OR), Carrie Secrist Gallery (Chicago), and Nucleus Portland. In 2022, Howat was Artist-in-Residence at Gallery 263 in Cambridge, MA, and previously held a long-term residency at Kimball Jenkins School of Art in Concord, NH. Since 2022, he has coordinated ArtReach at AVA Gallery & Art Center (Lebanon, NH), a regional program offering online studio visits, interviews, and exhibition tours with artists and curators across the Northeast.

As an artist-curator, Howat began curating in 2018 at Kimball Jenkins and has since collaborated on exhibitions with the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts and other venues. In 2023, he co-founded PILLAR Gallery + Projects in Concord, NH, fostering contemporary art programming in the region.