Layer Study (Nike Dri-fit, Nike Campaign, Summer Wars), 2015
dye Sublimation Prints, activewear mesh, 122 x 91 cm
© photo : HUGARD & VANOVERSCHELDE Photography
courtesy of the artist and MonCHERI, Bruxelles

Layer Study (Uber, Nike Campaign, Summer Wars), 2015
dye Sublimation Prints, activewear mesh, 122 x 91 cm
© photo : HUGARD & VANOVERSCHELDE Photography
courtesy of the artist and MonCHERI, Bruxelles

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For his exhibition at MonChéri entitled Core Exposed, MIKE GOLDBY (1991) premiers a new series of works which depict athletic models shot in a dead-pan style reminiscent of stock photography, picturing stereotypical expressions or narrative scenes for generic commercial use. They’re attractive images that concentrate on texture and patterns thanks to a combination with manga illustration and mesh fabrics.

Close in on the individual. Catch up to one, and hear the human voice is fading. Its intensity is yielding to forces beyond itself. Other intensities are taking its place. The modern subject is under rule. We have surrendered to strategies disinterested in our inner life except for potential use-value. We have lost the struggle for our identities. We are created from the outside in, personality now a question of proper formatting in a cosmopolitan landscape of empty objects that attach themselves to us and cannot be shaken. We are exposed to the objective of globalized mass-consumerism and of the skin in lotion or fabric. Alien iconographies, created from market research statistics and discussed in boardrooms, system beyond his making. Submit if you want to continue. – MICHAEL PACE (excerpt from the press release)

Since a few years, MIKE GOLDBY (1991) has developed a singular style of image making which encompasses a full range of medium, styles, and techniques: he often layers elements and printing methods as well as sculptural elements, combining them in a way that engages photographic imagery, social and artistic conventions as well as the history of image technology and its place in contemporary artistic production.