Accueil              Matt Mahlen en français         Warning/Avertissement                                               

Born in 1968 in Nantes, France. I joined the art section of the school of fine arts in Marseilles-Luminy. For the first time, it was vaguely heard of Mahlen in the art review “ On est tous de Quimper ” (Le Moule à gaufres, Paris, 1993). Once my national degree in fine arts obtained, I left Marseilles for Montréal (Québec/Canada), in 1994. I lived 9 months in Montréal where I founded BASE ART, an enterprise for artistic interventions which contributed to the international art fair of the city, La folle fête foraine des arts, and organized different events. At the end of 1994, I came back to Marseilles where I became a member of the association of conscientious objectors (APOC) based there. I contributed to an explosive and funny “ artivism ” - artistic activism - mingling radio broadcasting, art work and artistic actions. In 1996, I was on trial for desertion in times of  peace as a member of the Collective of the five total war-resisters.

The following year, I trained as an assistant artistic manager for the book publishers, Les Editions de l’Aube.

In 1998, as an odd man of words and images, I decided to become a cartoonist. Since, Matt MAHLEN has been drawing regularly in various alternative publications in France (Silence, Le RIRe) and in Great-Britain (PEACE NEWS, EC Magazine), and contributed to Alternative Libertaire (Belgium) and BLU Mag (USA).

At the same time, I carried out work in two main artistic fields: etching and sculpture as well as poetry (words and images). Some of my texts and drawings have been published by Gros Textes, Propos de Campagne, La Revue des Animaux... Besides, most of them have been collected in a series of artist’s notebooks unknown to The Larger Public. Mind that citizen! (Stark Gallery, London, 3 December 2000 - 6 January 2001) was the last exhibition of my satirical etchings.

As a spontaneous contributor to various projects ( illustrator for the book publishers Syllepse, for example), I am looking for a permanent position as cartoonist or illustrator in an editor of newspaper or in a book publisher.

Since September 2000, I have been living and working in Strasbourg, France.