Manu De Mey
Manu De Mey was born in Antwerp in 1965, his mother a British artist and his father a Flemish accountant. He grew up as the eldest of four boys in Kalmthout, a beautiful heathland in the North of Belgium. In his twenties he moved to the city of Antwerp where he started his own business as web designer.
He started making digital graphic art as a hobby in 2008. In September 2017 he had a creative epiphany at the Burning Man festival in the desert of Nevada, USA and enrolled himself only days after returning at the Art Academy of Mortsel, Antwerp and started sketching and painting, something he had not done for 30 years. He learned himself to draw in 6 months and hasn’t stopped drawing and painting since.
He now lives in Antwerp with his girlfriend and 2 young adult boys. At home he has two workplaces. Downstairs is his ‘office’ where he makes websites for clients. Each day when work is finished, he rushes upstairs to his atelier where he draws and paints figurative art, mainly portraits. With his art, Manu tries to create something visually striking and convey some sort of strong emotion. His portraits often are ambiguous and this is mostly intentional. The viewer is never sure if they are looking at a victim or an offender, a leader or a follower, a master or a slave. Manu's world is populated with sad, melancholic people with suppressed emotion, often beautiful but damaged woman.
Manu is only this year starting to come out with his work and has already had several expositions, solo and group, and is starting to build an artistic career.
Exhibitions
Graphique Noir: 5 prints of 3D work featured at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in California USA, may 2013
Burning Man: one artwork in group exposition in Central Café at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, USA, september 2017
Gebermte: two paintings on plexiglass in outdoor group installation in Mortsel, april 2018
Lambermontmartre: participation in the Lambermontmartre open air art market, Antwerp, summer 2018
Open Huis Expo: exhibition of paintings and drawings in own home in Antwerp, march 2019
Galerie Art Nomade: exhibition of paintings and drawings in galerie Art Nomade in Brussels, april 2019
De Kunstenfabriek: 3 works in group exposition organised by the city of Mortsel, Mortsel, May 2019
Expo 167: several works in group exposition, organised by myself, Kloosterstraat Antwerp, May-June 2019
Ambigu: solo exposition in gallery Conscience20, Conscienceplein 20, Antwerp, July 2019
Lambermontmartre: participation in the Lambermontmartre open air art market, summer 2019
Open Ateliers Antwerp, september 2019
ACAF: selected to be part of the Accessible Art Fair at Bozar Brussels, October 2019
Catawiki: featured as Trending Artist of the week, December 2019, sold 19 works
EuropArtFair: selected to participate at EuropArtFair in Amsterdam from 6- 8 of December 2019
Le Neuf Gallery: solo exhibition, May-June 2020
Sint-Willebrorduskerk: group expo in the Sint-Willebrorduskerk in Antwerp – October 2020
New Jorg Gallery, group expo in New Jorg Gallery in Kalmthout – April 2021
Balthasar Brussels, two works in group expo from June 2021 till May 2022
Monaco Art fair, two works represented by gallery, August 2021
Conscience20, solo expo in Popup Gallery in Antwerp – September 2021
Nobody&Friends gallery, group expo in Antwerp – October 2021
Birth of Super Nova, group expo at Monat Gallery in Madrid – January 2022
World Art Forum, Cairo, Egypt (January 2022)
Identity Revolution, group expo in Lecce, Italy (March 2022)
Intens, solo expo at Galerij Rivierenhof, Antwerp (April 2022)
Atelier in Beeld, Antwerp (13-15th of May 2022)
Art Nordic, Copenhague (June 2022)
Open Ateliers Antwerpen (September 2022)
Focus Art Fair, group expo at le Carrousel du Louvre, Paris (September 2022)
Dreamland, group expo at Galeria Azur, Madrid (November 2022)
Shakespeare en ik, Sint-Denijs-Westrem (december 2022)
Galeria Azur, Berlin (February 2023)
Expo Rivierenhof, Antwerp (March 2023)
Open Atelier Deurne, Antwerp (April 2023)
Atelier in Beeld, Antwerp (May 2023)
Pleased To Meet You!, duo-expo with Hildegard Penne, Antwerp (June 2023)
Eddy’s Lab, group expo in Gare Maritime, Brussels (september-oktober 2023
BorgerHart, Antwerp (september 2023)
Open Ateliers Antwerpen (september 2023)