Michael Bom(1967), Cape Town, South Africa.

Studied at Willem de Kooning Academy of Fine Arts, Rotterdam. Working and living in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Born in Cape Town not far from the sea I was, already at an early age, entranced by the way the surface of the sea played on my senses. Each time I looked its energy was different. The constantly changing combination of the elements captivated me to keep on watching, to see what would happen next.

My interest is ultimately about the dynamic relationship between the viewer and the object. It is the experience, over the object, which is emphasized. Through the dimension of time a kinetic work is deprived of it’s permanent existence because it is always in movement and lives for the viewer only in the present moment.

I work across different mediums such as painting, print making and kinetic art; always exploring how to apply the medium in a pure and minimal manner. Light space movement relationships between the colours, their positions, interactions and their effect on each other are elements which I play with.

The energy I feel while observing natural phenomena together with their rhythms and movements are the starting point in my work. An important motive in my work me is the sea. Here nature appears in its simplest, essential, unchanging form. The sea is a constantly moving landscape which is never twice the same, but still remains the same.

By only employing dots and circles; the most minimal and perfect shapes I am able to create works from a basis of simplicity and limitation. This foundation always plays a role in my approach from which I am able to express the essence of what I am trying to achieve.

The kinetic optical installations ‘Moving Images II’ and ‘Time Patterns 1’ were nominated for the 5th and 6th International André Evard-Art Award, by the Kunsthalle Messmer museum in Germany.