Solo Exhibitions
2020-21 Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley 2017 Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton, Leeds 2010 Courthouse, Otley 2007 ArtCo, Leeds 2006 Design Innovation Centre, Leeds 2006 Art and Design Gallery, Horsforth 2005 Nightingale Gallery, Lotherton Hall 1996 Leeds City Art Gallery Group Exhibitions 2020-21 Biscuit Factory, Newcastle 2018 Biscuit Factory, Newcastle 2014 Biscuit Factory, Newcastle 2013 Biscuit Factory, Newcastle 2012 ArtCo, Leeds 2010 Leeds Art Fair, The Light 2005 Tregoning Gallery, Derby 2004 Reubens Gallery,Leeds Awards and Commissions 2020 Commission by Co-Partnership Design Agency to produce a series of wine label etchings for the Prisoner Wine Company, California 2019 Etchings from the "City Fragments' series accepted into the collection of Leeds City Art Gallery as part of their Picture Lending Scheme. 2019 Artist in Residence Cliffe Castle Museum Keighley 2018 Monoprinting demonstration at the Biscuit Factory 2006 Request to produce the Commemorative Print for Leeds Art Fair 1998-2000 Illustrated for the Erotic Review |
I was born on a Pennine farm in 1966. My formative years, especially as a teenager and young man were restless, though any itinerant tendencies were grounded by farm work. The frequent depiction of animals and an anthropomorphic quality to my work reflects a deep connection between animal and human worlds.
Making Art has always been a way to think through experience, and by this I don't mean it is in any way therapeutic (in-fact it's a ball ache), but that my deeper connections and wrangles with life are best explored visually, and as such, much of my work is symbolic of life experiences. The work here is a kind of hallucinatory diary, coming about through necessity and gut response to the world around me, rather than any rational consideration. Biography 1989 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Cheltenham School of Art 1989 Work on a farm in Aberystwyth 1990 Move to Antigua. Work at a kennels before attempting 4 months self-sufficiency in the Shekerley Mountains. 1991 Sail to Spain on a 30 foot yacht, with the sole company of the captain, spending 3 months at sea. Lose provisions and a sail during two storms. 1991/92 Tramp through Spain and France before working on farms in Holland. 1992 Return to Britain 1993 Set up studio in Leeds equipped for etching. 1994 Complete Contemporary Dance Course. 1995/96 Postman. P/t MA Fine Art, Leeds University 1996-97 Travel through Spain working on a commission to illustrate an erotic thriller, 'Angel' which is published in a limited silk bound edition and exhibited at the Eagle Gallery, London 1997-00 Return to Leeds and work in a foundry. Become regular illustrator for the 'Erotic Review'. 2000 - Present. Work part time with Adults with Learning Disabilities. 2007 Move to Spain to renovate an old house. 2008–2014 Return to Yorkshire. Series of dark paintings and prints about Visionary Journeys, Outsiders, and an on-going Bestiary . 2016 - Move to a peaceful spot near the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and set up a garden studio. 
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Contact:
I live near the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in the Aire Valley between Keighley and Ilkley Moor with my wife Lorna. I work from a small studio idyllically overlooking the garden with all the comings and goings of bird and insect life.
Gallery representation is with The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle and The Craft and Design Gallery in Leeds.
I can also be found on mikemoorartist@instagram.com for more current projects and news.
My work can be bought from the Purchase page or through a studio visit.
Please email me directly if you have any queries or would like to visit and I will reply as soon as possible: mikeamoor@hotmail.com
"Although we in the West are largely regarded to be living in secular societies, we remain obsessed with searching for soulful experiences and spiritual sustenance and trying to capture the sense of awe that the religious can still so effortlessly achieve" Mapin Art Gallery (The Sacred and the Profane)
"All pessimistic, nihilistic behaviour and assertion is only intended to create, or to discover hope" Gerhard Richter