MIKE DINGS

“Like the filmmakers of Spaghetti Westerns, I ask how much information we need in an image to sketch an entire scene?”

Mike Dings (1996), born in Venray, The Netherlands, currently lives and works in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Mike graduated from the HKU Fine Art in Utrecht (2019). The collaboration between Mike Dings and Nasty Alice started with Mike’s participation in Talenthub jump! of the Province of North Brabant. Since then, he has exhibited regularly in The Netherlands. Among these occasions are exhibitions at Odapark (Maastricht) and Ruby Soho (‘s-Hertogenbosch). Mike Dings had in 2022 an artist in residence at Van Gogh Air (Zundert).

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Spaghetti Westerns, cowboys, the Wild West and associated landscapes, clothing, weapons, the atmosphere are the subjects in Mike Dings’ paintings. In his work he investigates how much visual image or information is needed to depict a certain scene or environment. The theme of Dings’ work cannot be viewed separately from American culture. You imagine yourself in the desert and see lost American glory. The artists work evokes America, finding overlap in traveling or just being present in a certain location. His work has a narrative power that immediately appeals to the imagination. It is impossible not to wonder what is about to happen or has just happened.

The artist is a spectator. For Dings, physical presence is subordinate, he creates his own world with his canvases. He travels through books, albums and films. He flawlessly owns the subject matter, becomes – in fact – what he sees, reads and listens to. His fascination for the Western and all associated visual elements is expressed in the creation of his own Spaghetti Western. He uses well-known images from many Westerns as starting points to take his hand to, with an economic touch.

Without a defined relationship between the canvases, a story emerges in his studio, a film, a plot slowly seems to unfold. Often there is an ominous undertone, after all, cowboy life is tough. Yet there is a cautious glimmer of hope in his landscapes and romance is within reach. Dings’ work is set in the bygone world of the cowboy, the ‘Wild West’, but applies seamlessly to the grittiness of the here and now.