Awards and Commissions
2021Commission to illustrate Queen of Swords for Leeds Tarot Card Project 2021CD Illustrations for the Ensemble of the Golden Bough Brass Quintet 2020 Commission by Co-Partnership Design Agency to produce a series of wine label etchings for the Prisoner Wine Company (TPWCo), California 2019 Etchings from the 'City Fragments' series acquired by 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 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 1997 Eagle Gallery, London |
I was born on a Pennine farm in 1966. The frequent depiction of animals and an anthropomorphic quality to my work reflects a deep connection between animal and human worlds along with an awareness of the physical and psychic split that mankind has created between itself and the rest of nature. The themes of vulnerability to forces beyond our control and a search for meaning in a complex, fractious age often sit below the surface
Making Art has always been a way to think through experience, and by this I don't mean it is in any way therapeutic, 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 visionary diary, coming about through necessity and a gut response to the world around me. "After completing a Fine Art degree in Cheltenham in 1989, Mike Moor worked on farms in Wales before moving to the West Indies where he attempted to live self sufficiently. In 1992 he returned to Europe, crossing the Atlantic in a 30’ yacht with the sole company of the captain. Experiencing life threatening storms and hunger he disembarked in Spain and hitched to Holland where he again found farm work. The psychological effects of these years were vividly captured in a series of visionary etchings, expressive of awe, displacement, fear, and a religiosity brought about by his trials. Mike settled in Leeds for several years where he was inspired by the sculpture collection in the City Art Gallery. After exhibiting annually at the Leeds Art Fair he was requested to make a commemorative print. He chose to create an image which would pay homage to past artists through depicting unseen or unadmired sculptures and statues in the city. Inspired by this theme, he continued to develop a series of satirical prints where stone and bronze were brought to life in an exodus from the city. This became the “City Fragments”. War and conflict (including inner conflict) often resurfaces in Moor’s print-work. It became a specific theme in the 90’s following harrowing news reports from the Balkans, and as we are daily reminded of man's inhumanity to man, continues to haunt many of his images. During further travels through Spain he completed a commission to illustrate a limited edition Gothic story which was exhibited at the Eagle Gallery, London and praised in the Erotic Review. Animals and animal-human hybrids have been a recurring motif in Moor’s work as a form of Animalism or to express the bestial natures of humankind. The etchings from life are in a way, homages, to quote Mike: ‘looking closely, patiently, and trying to fix that looking is a form of reverence’. In 2016 he settled with his wife in Riddlesden, W.Yorkshire by the Leeds-Liverpool canal. He splits his time between Art, family life, growing food in his treasured garden, kayaking and traipsing across the moors with his greyhound (the patient model for many of the etchings)." 
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Contact:
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.
I live in the Aire Valley between Keighley and Ilkley Moor where I work from a small studio idyllically overlooking the garden with all the comings and goings of bird and insect life. 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