Manu De Mey

I am a Belgian contemporary artist based in Antwerp, working primarily in painting and drawing. My artistic journey did not follow a traditional path. For many years I worked in digital media and creative entrepreneurship, while art remained a persistent presence in the background of my life.

A transformative experience at Burning Man in 2017 changed everything. Surrounded by radical creativity and artistic freedom, I rediscovered a part of myself that had been waiting for expression. What began as an experiment quickly evolved into a full commitment to painting and drawing. Since then, art has become both my language and my way of exploring the world.

My work is centered on the human condition. Through portraiture and figurative imagery, I explore themes such as vulnerability, melancholy, resilience, identity, and the emotional stories we carry beneath the surface. I am fascinated by faces—not as representations of individuals, but as landscapes of memory, longing, strength, and uncertainty. Rather than offering clear narratives, I seek to create images that leave space for the viewer's own emotions and interpretations.

Working with oil paint, charcoal and acrylics, I build layers, textures, and marks that mirror the complexity...

Painting (Mixed Techniques) at the Art Academy of Mortsel.

Since 2018, I have exhibited extensively in Belgium and internationally, with solo and group exhibitions in Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges, Ostend, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Slovakia, Italy, Canada, Taiwan and China.