Mike Moor
Born in 1966 in Stockport, Mike Moor studied at Grimsby School of Art and at Cheltenham School of Art, where he specialised in painting and printmaking; he subsequently gained a Master of Arts Degree at Bretton Hall College. Having travelled widely, Mike now lives in Spain with his wife. His art reflects a love of the German graphic tradition from Durer and Grien to the Expressionists, and of artists as diverse as Goya, Picasso, Arthur Boyd and Sutherland. This influence is evident as he explores the human condition in work often morbid yet suffused with mystery and hope.
His work has been described by a critic as a '...strange and mysterious collection of images...which emerge from the darkness of the tangle of crisscross lines to remind us of dreams, fantasies and memories’.
A recent series of work "City Fragments" features dry point etchings based on and inspired by the City of Leeds and makes reference to its buildings and monuments. The etchings are linked by the theme of the rapid development of the city, and the possible effects on its outsiders. The disenfranchised are personified through various enlivened monuments, as each scene follows the troupe of itinerants as they leave a rapidly changing city in search of arcadia – to put it simply. Mike hoped these theatrical, otherworldly images 'would create a fitting metaphor for the human condition - our vulnerability to forces more powerful than ourselves, and a restless search for connectivity and refuge'
The process chosen to execute the work is integral. 'For me dry-point is the most direct and visceral form of intaglio printmaking, as though I'm expressing physically what is being seen and recreated. This is particularly effective with those textural qualities that can ground an etching in its own reality.'
C.V
Solo Exhibitions
2007 ArtCo, Leeds
2006 Design Innovation Centre, Leeds
2006 Art and Design Gallery, Horsforth
2006 Hayley's Hotel, Leeds
2005 Nightingale Gallery, Lotherton Hall
1997 Nightingale Gallery, Lotherton Hall
1996 Leeds City Art Gallery
1995 Batley Art Gallery
1995 Design Innovation Centre, Leeds
1990 Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth
Group Exhibitions
2007 leeds Art fair, The light
2006 Leeds Art fair, The Light
2005 Leeds Art Fair, The Light
2005 Tregoning Gallery, Derby
2004 Reubens Gallery,Leeds
2004 Bristol Affordable Art Fair, Reubens Gallery
2004 Leeds Art Fair, The Light
2003 Leeds art fair, The Light
2001 Leeds Art Fair, Corn Exchange
2000 Ranby Hall, Ranby
1997 Eagle Gallery, London
1996 M.A Exhibition, Bretton Hall
1995 Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax
1994 Dixon Bate Gallery, Leeds
1989 Peltar and Sands Gallery, Bristol
1989 Kit Williams’ Pedlar Gallery, Stroud
1988 B.A Exhibition, Cheltenham School of Art
Awards and Commissions
1998-2000 Illustrated for the Erotic Review
1997 Fifteen illustrations for the book “Angel” published by Ediciones Actaeon, Spain
1994 Yorkshire and Humberside Arts Individual Production Award