Birdpark by Mojoko - Paradise Lost exhibition at Three Bays Gallery in Belgium
27 September - 19 October, 2025
Opening weekend: Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 September, 1 to 6pm.
Open all Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 6pm or by appointment.
"Paradise Lost" unfolds as a poignant meditation on displacement, memory, and the complex poetics of place. This group exhibition reunites six artists: Mojoko (Steve Lawler) from Singapore and 5 Belgian artists with a shared past in Singapore: Malco FC, Tom Merckx, Anita Nevens, Pinkus and Inge Simons. Their intertwined narratives probe the elusive contours of identity shaped by geography, belonging, and the act of departure.
At the heart of the exhibition lies the evocative corpus of Mojoko, who, based in Singapore, conjures a vibrant vision of tropical life: a polis of myth, memory, and sensory experience. His works weave cinematic tableaux and pop culture imagery that are simultaneously intimate and expansive, conjuring a paradise charged with both enchantment and ambivalence.
The title "Paradise Lost" functions as a conceptual anchor for the entire show, referencing not only Mojoko’s distinct visual chronicle of tropical existence but also the lived realities of the five Belgian artists who once inhabited the same geographical and cultural milieu in Singapore before moving back to Belgium. Their works register the reverberations of that tropical interlude, its allure and absence, fragmented through memory and reconfigured across diverse media: from Pinkus’ poetic photographic narrative, to Malco RC’s layered compositions, Tom Merckx’s incisive collages, Anita Nevens’ delicate yet potent inquiries into human living, and Inge Simons’ graphical dissections.
Together, these artists form a dialogue between presence and absence, home and exile, paradise geographic and paradisiacal ideal. "Paradise Lost" compels viewers to confront how physical and emotional landscapes mold artistic identity, how cultural hybridity challenges notions of origin, and how the bittersweet act of leaving reshapes the self.
Presented within the intimate yet dynamic space of Three Bays Gallery, a home gallery itself steeped in notions of shelter and exposure, this exhibition invites a rigorous encounter with contemporary narratives of place, migration, and the poetic sites of personal and collective memory.
With its deliberative curation by Jasmine De Brauwer, "Paradise Lost" stakes its claim as a nuanced contribution to Belgium’s contemporary art discourse, foregrounding artists at the confluence of international experience and local resonance. It is an exhibition for those who seek to understand the tensions of landscape as lived, lost, and reimagined.
Three Bays Gallery proudly hosts this gathering of artists, continuing its commitment to fostering dialogue between diasporic experience and rooted expression through cutting-edge contemporary art.
Artists Biographies:
Mojoko (1977, Tehran, Iran)
Mojoko also known as Steve Lawler, is a Singapore based contemporary artist whose work spans various mediums, including painting, illustration, and mixed media. His style is eclectic, often blending elements of pop culture, street art, and traditional Asian motifs frequently incorporating iconic imagery from popular culture, memes, movie references, and modern pop ephemera, adding layers of meaning and commentary to his work.
These works often carry a sense of playfulness and irreverence, yet beneath the surface, there's often a deeper exploration of societal issues, cultural identity, and the human experience. His pieces can evoke a sense of nostalgia while also challenging viewers to reconsider their perceptions of contemporary art.
Mojoko's artistic style is dynamic, thought-provoking, and visually striking, making him a notable figure in the contemporary art scene in Singapore and beyond.
Malco RC (1981, Gent, Belgium)
“Absurdism arises from the tension between our desire for order, meaning, and happiness and the indifferent natural universe’s refusal to provide them.”—Albert Camus
Malco RC abandons reason to explore the beautiful futility of the human condition. Drawing on philosophy, literature, and industrial forms, he reassembles relics of civilization into unpredictable compositions. His work embraces the mundane, arranging objects, animals, and machines to capture humanity’s aimless wandering and unintentional self-sabotage. Through these absurdist visions, the appeal of the misfit surpasses that of classical beauty.
Based in Brussels, Malco RC aka Fred Snauwaert is a multidisciplinary brand designer who’s work spans digital, print, animation, illustration, photography, brand and packaging.
Tom Merckx (1972, Bornem, Belgium)
Graphic designer/artist based in Antwerp.
He made his first masterpiece at 12 - it was a nude. He also achieved some notoriety with a local rock band. At school, he traded political science for advertising. Little did he know that - after leaving some strong marks in several Belgian agencies - he would make it in Singapore as a Design Director.
Returning to Belgium in 2010, Tom had his first taste of independence with Me and Mister Jones. He moved on in 2015 to co-found One Seed.
Tom is a brand designer working at the intersection of graphic design and video/motion/illustration for a variety of international clients. With a portfolio spanning over three decades - from fish food to luxury hotels, Tom has the uncanny ability to make the complex look seemingly obvious - all without sacrificing elegance, or commercial impact.
During the Covid pandemic he shifted his focus to his personal artistic work. As a analog collage artist with a distinctive approach to collage and mixed media, his pieces blends artistic expression with self exploration. Using layers of eclectic paper scraps and various materials to navigate complex emotional landscapes, he invites viewers to engage with both the materials and the meanings behind them.
Anita Nevens (1968, Asse, Belgium)
Anita Nevens’ work spans ceramics, sculpture, furniture, installation, and social practice. Her projects often begin with simple materials: clay, wood and textiles transformed into “props” that carry memory, ritual, and connection. From 2005 to 2013 she lived in Singapore, creating major works such as My Universal Home (2007) and Wayang – Playstage (2011), which explored hybridity and the meaning of home in a global, shifting context.
Returning to Belgium in 2012, she rooted herself in the Flemish countryside, where the stark contrast with her life abroad inspired projects like Mu.N’Ha (2018), a temporary village museum built from local stories. Today her ceramic practice continues this search for grounding and balance between mobility and rootedness. Her path, from the upheaval of losing her childhood home to the dislocations of life abroad and the search for grounding back in Belgium, resonates with the theme of Paradise Lost. In her work, what is lost is never simply gone: it is continually reframed, re-enacted, and offered back as a possibility for shared belonging.
Anita lives and works in Outer, Belgium.
Pinkus (1957, Belgium)
Based in Singapore from 1994 to 2023. An artist clouded in mystery.
Inge Simons (1978, Borgerhout, Belgium)
"Drawing on the Surrealist belief that art should emerge from the unconscious mind, and guided by the principle of artistic automatism..."
Inge Simons is a graphic designer and graduate of the Master’s program in Visual Artsfrom Antwerp. Her work explores the intersections of abstraction and procedural experimentation, shaped by her earlier nomadic lifestyle and background in graphic design. This fusion results in an evolving artistic universe where movement, transformation, and spatial dynamics continually influence her visual language.
Currently focused on process-oriented abstract art, Inge’s broader practice reflects a continuous inquiry into how gesture, repetition, print and screen techniques affect visual perception. While her compositions may seem minimal or restrained, they are grounded in a deeply physical process. Each piece embodies a matrix of decisions, resistance, and time, with her practice remaining methodologically open and adaptable. She shifts fluidly between line-based gestures, sculptural mark-making, and other experimental forms in response to the conceptual evolution of each series. In a world increasingly defined by digital speed and visual saturation, Inge’s work offers a quiet resistance, an invitation to slow down, look more closely, and rediscover the surface as a site of encounter.
Working primarily in print and on screen, Inge crafts compositions of deliberate sparseness, minimal yet charged with presence. Rooted in abstract expressionism, her work embraces clarity over excess, where restraint becomes a form of intensity. Geometric forms surface through a pared-back palette and intuitive, dynamic gestures, revealing an interplay of color, light, and composition in their most distilled and evocative state.
