Artzu Gallery is spreading its wings and is currently organising Matt’s first international exhibition in Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City. His work was recently reviewied by Vietnam’s most influential lifestyle magazine East & West.
To read the East & West Magazine review click here:
A permanent display of sculptor Anna Gillespie’s work can be seen at Artzu Gallery including the bronze sculptures Flying Boy, Strong Man, Stand I & Blown Away II. Her work seeks to embody “an intensely emotional representation of the human form”.
Gillespie’s uses a wide range of materials in her work, including masking tape, bronze, fabric and plaster. With pieces ranging from life-size figures to smaller, more intimate items, she aims to express complex human emotions and responses to environmental issues.
We have teamed up with etc.venues to bring you a London solo exhibition by Matt Wilde at Dexter House, Tower Hill.
‘Life is something that happens while you’re making other plans’.
Wilde’s work has a raw energy. It’s a running commentary on life in the city. His figures represent the daily battle with the comings and goings of getting from A to B.
His streetscapes are hard-edged yet with a humorous charm. The irony and self-deprecation of Matt’s work give an opportunity to release daily anxieties with a quiet smile. He invites you into his world with little witticisms and observations that punctuate his visual prose.
Matt’s use of urban architecture shows the glamour that attracts you to the Big City. While this is a world we all too easily recognise, through Wilde’s eyes we somehow come to grips with its enormity and pathos.
MATT WILDE – ABOUT THE WORK
The best way for me to deal with a negative experience is to try and turn it into a positive and sometimes humorous painting. Perhaps the best example of this would be ‘ You Think Too Much’, a solo exhibition from 2005. I had been accused of thinking too much about life and art by family and friends who said that they could see the cogs turning in my head. They had become frustrated with my persistence in pursuing a career as an artist.
I would say that my work is full of life and energy. The urge to get the ideas from mind to canvas is evident in the mmediateness of the charcoal or brush strokes. The fast pace of the thought process and work style coincide with the fast pace of today’s lifestyles and the need for me to produce artwork and survive financially at the same time. I think that the viewer can relate to the paintings in one way or another. Is it you waiting for the train or bus to arrive or you rushing through the crowds while chatting on your mobile phone, or perhaps it’s you reading the latest headlines in the paper or feeling lost amongst the crowds.
I have incorporated newspaper cuttings along with shopping receipts and tickets from public transport since 1998. I feel hat they serve a purpose as a foundation to my work, capturing a moment in time along with dates and headlines. I sometimes add political humour to the work by creating my own headlines in newspapers, billboards or on adverts seen on taxis and buses, I feel that this small attention to detail keep the observer interested in the work and maybe find something new with each view.
More recently my work has explored the city and is mainly inspired by the urban environment, places I’ve visited and the experiences I’ve had, by the effect of the media and by the concerns of everyday living . It is an attempt to capture an idea of a place, freeze a thought or memory. As for thinking too much, I try not to at the point of drawing or painting, I try not to worry too much about perfection and concentrate on the immediate. I noticed how my children became more concerned with a drawing looking exactly like the item portrayed, rubbing out or screwing up the paper if it wasn’t right. I prefer the energy of their work when they scribble something down without too much thought and concern about the end result. I suppose that is because my art is primarily instinctive.
