Manu De Mey Painter Belgium 1965

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.
By
Music: Requiem In Cello - Hanu Dixit
Youtube Audio Library