米高•蘭迪1963年生於倫敦，1981年就讀於拉夫堡藝術學院，其後於1985至88年就讀倫敦金匠學院。1988年參與同學達明安•赫斯特策劃的藝術展覽「凝」，成為名噪一時的「英國青年藝術家」其中一員。
2001年，蘭迪創作了他最著名的作品《分解》，以探討社會與消費主義之間曖昧微妙的關係。在倫敦牛津街一間廢棄的商店裡，一隊為數十一人、穿上藍色工作服的助理員，在大約兩星期裡有系統地將蘭迪的所有財物，分門別類後銷毀，其中包括他的汽車和出生證書。他的所有財物共7,227項，全部被放置在店內的百米長運輸帶上拆解為小件，最後被壓扁輾碎，裝進垃圾袋裡。這行動不僅展示了蘭迪的財產被銷毀，更表現了一個人在失去所有財產後的起伏情緒，及重新投入生活的過程中情感的重整。鋼筆畫《分解》(2002)是蘭迪在整個行動過後，憑記憶把當時的情景仔細地描繪出來的。
蘭迪為了1995年的作品《廢料服務》成立了一間公司，聲言為社會去除「渣滓」，所謂「渣滓」，即那些在經濟上被邊緣化及缺乏生產力的人，猶如消費社會中的多餘副產品。在兩年多的時間裡，蘭迪為這虛設的公司精心設計制服、標誌以及設備。一部「禿鷹」號巨型人形切碎機成了這大型裝置作品的核心，可以從丟棄的飲品罐裁出數以百萬計的小人形鋁片。部份廢料被放進紅色塑膠袋保存，成為另一件作品，名為《我們喜歡你討厭的工作》(1995)。
蘭迪在英國本土和海外廣泛展出。近期個展計有：「藝術垃圾箱」(南倫敦畫廊，2010)；「歡樂機器」(泰特利物浦美術館，2009)；「米高•蘭迪：半獨立」(泰特英國美術館，倫敦，2004)。他亦曾參與影響深遠的聯展，包括有「感覺：薩奇英國青年藝術家藏品」展(皇家美術學院，倫敦，1997)；「閃耀！倫敦新藝術」（沃爾克藝術中心，明尼阿坡里斯；當代藝術博物館，休斯頓，1995）；「東郊庭院展」(倫敦，1990)；「凝」(倫敦，1988)。
Michael Landy was born in 1963 in London. He studied at Loughborough College of Art in 1981 before attending Goldsmiths College, London from 1985 to 1988. Landy became part of the infamous Young British Artist set following his participation in the group exhibition Freeze, curated by fellow student Damien Hirst in 1988.
In 2001, Landy produced his best known work Break Down in which he examined society’s romance with consumerism. Over the duration of two weeks in a disused shop on Oxford Street, London, a team of eleven blue-overall clad assistants systematically catalogued then destroyed Landy’s entire possessions, ranging from his car to his birth certificate. In total, 7,227 items of his belongings were placed on a 100 metre long conveyor belt within the shop and then dismantled to their component parts. Finally, they were either crushed or granulated and placed into refuse sacks. Thus the project not only involved the breakdown of Landy’s possessions, but also the emotional breakdown of how a person can begin his life again having lost every material possession. Break Down (2002), is a pen and ink drawing in which Landy retrospectively recorded the experience in the minutest of detail.
For his work of 1995 Scrapheap Services, Landy created a company which promised to rid society of “scum” — the economically marginalised and non-productive — as if they were simply one more unwanted by-product of the consumer society. Over a two-year period, Landy meticulously created the uniforms, logos and equipment for his fictitious company. The large-scale installation that resulted centred on the gigantic Vulture people-shredder, which slowly reduced to minute pieces the millions of tiny figures, laboriously cut out of salvaged drinks cans. Some of the scraps from Michael Landy's installation Scrapheap Services are preserved in the red plastic sack entitled We Love the Jobs You Hate (1995).
Landy has exhibited extensively both in the UK and abroad including recent solo exhibitions Art Bin at South London Gallery, 2010; Joyous Machines at Tate Liverpool, 2009 and Michael Landy: Semi-detached at Tate Britain, London, 2004. His work was also seen in seminal group exhibitions such as Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection at Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1997; Brilliant! New Art from Britain, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 1995; East Country Yard Show, London, 1990 and Freeze, London, 1988.