DAVID MOSES: CAN'T STOP, WON'T STOP
Nino Mier Gallery is pleased to present Can’t stop, won’t stop in Brussels by the artist David Moses. In Moses' works, familiar cartoon features like eyes, mouths, and hands are juxtapose with abstract color fields.
June 21 - July 20, 2024
Can’t stop, won’t stop explores the patterns of recognition and emotional bonds we form with cartoon characters, focusing on their theatricality rather than their narratives. His varicolored compositions feature imagery from 20th-century animations, where characters like Elmer Elephant, The Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs emerge amidst abstract whirlwinds of soft pastels and acrylics.
To create each work, Moses watches films such as Woodland Café (1937), The Big Bad Wolf (1934), Springtime (1929), The Skeleton Dance (1929) and Elmer Elephant (1936), paying close attention to camera narration. Earlier films from the early 20th century are more theatrical, presenting their characters from a straight-on perspective. As animation techniques matured towards the mid-1900s, the visual language of these films became more complex, occupying various perspectives and distances from their subjects.
Moses plans his compositions on the computer, using film stills to prepare ratios and elements, moving away from strict aspect ratios and experimenting with vertical works. This shift allows him more creative freedom, transforming his approach from strict replication to a collage-like creation with its own life.
Moses also welcomes chance and spontaneity in his work, having found a balance between allowing for errors or material impulses and controlling the composition. This creates a kind of conversation between the artist and the work, where improvisation is key. Moses knows a work is finished if he has a sense that something could still be added—a kind of openness in the work. If the work feels too finished, he starts over.
Moses' meticulous process involves defining color fields with a spatula to avoid brush stroke distractions. His canvases, often placed on the floor and sometimes dried with a hairdryer, allow for controlled, watery painting without drips. Using carefully selected film stills, he transfers images onto the canvas through an archeologic process, resulting in complex compositions where figurative fragments and abstract color fields coexist.
David Moses (b.1983, Bonn, DE. Lives and works in Berlin, DE). After studying archaeology at the University of Tübingen, Moses began studying art at the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK) in the classes of Valérie Favre. In 2013, he was awarded the Helmut-Thomas Stiftung Prize for Printmaking. He has participated several times in group exhibitions at Galerie C, Galerie Russi Klenner and has exhibited in museums and institutions such as the Miettinen Collection and the Jewish Museum in Berlin.