MaMA 

Flipje van Tiel, a fake plant, a graffiti tag with a spelling mistake – these are the images that stick in Mike Moonen’s mind, but probably aren’t even noticed by other people. In an environment where everything’s designed there’s a danger we’ll lose any sense of wonder, because we’re just so used to it – images become so flawless and uniform that we develop a blind spot for them. Mike Moonen searches for the human blips in the pursuit of perfection and highlights the failures that cause disruption and confound expectations.

“Familiarstrangeprettyugly”
Mike Moonen creates collages, prints, drawings, animations, sculptures and (online) zines. In the processing of photos and objects that Mike Moonen finds in his surroundings he sabotages himself, by using software in ways it wasn’t intended or by employing materials he has never worked with before. He deliberately seeks out the boundary between beautiful and ugly, between intentional and accidental, and chance has a big influence on the outcome. However, the works always retain a glimmer of recognition, and you keep wondering where the heck you’ve seen that dog before.

Mike Moonen has gathered together a network of artists with whom he collaborates. MAMA is therefore presenting several books and videos he has produced together with Rowan van As, Paul Drissen, Daniël Goldbach, Timo van Grinsven, Ray Moon, Willem van Kempen, Joep Hinssen and others.

Mike Moonen graduated from the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design in 2014. His work has been shown in group exhibitions at Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture, Extrapool, Kunstpodium T, MoMart and elsewhere.