Artzu’s Gallery New Talent

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.          For more information please contact: Nick Betney e: nick@artzu.co.uk t: +44 (0) 7958 942 008

Matt’s solo exhibition will be held at:

Dexter House, No.2 Royal Mint Court, Tower Hill, London, EC3N 4QN

(Opposite the Tower of London)

Thursday 22nd October (private view, invitation only) – Friday 27th November.

Tel: 020 7977 5300

For maps and directions please see: http://www.etcvenues.co.uk/venues/dexter-house

To see Matt’s artwork go to :

www.artzu.co.uk/category/figurative/matt-wilde

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Sponsored by:

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The Rat Race That’s Fun

Ride The Wave

 The Fine Art  Of Juggling

  Woof Woof Beep Beep

   ]]> http://news.artzu.co.uk/artzu-news/matt-wilde-london-exhibition/feed/ 0 http://news.artzu.co.uk/artzu-news/philip-smith-hits-london/ http://news.artzu.co.uk/artzu-news/philip-smith-hits-london/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:51:53 +0000 Artzu http://news.artzu.co.uk/?p=271  

Sponsors Church House Private Bank and etc. venues combined to create a resoundingly successful exhibition by Manchester artist Philip Smith. Indeed etc. venues have made a bid to buy many of the key paintings! Church House report that the relationship between art and commerce is working well. Keith Edwards, director at Church House, says: ‘Church House Private Bankers are keen to support Modern Art and its creators, a theme we share with etc. venues. Phillip’s work was both accessible and thought provoking in equal measure, the artist himself was generous with his time giving our clients and professional contacts a deeper insight to the work on show. This is our second exhibition with Artzu Gallery and we’ve enjoyed having a window on the world of international modern art, something our clients have shared with us. We hope to continue with the programme to support Artists across the mediums, and particularly Painters and Sculptors in concert with our partners Artzu Gallery and etc. venues’. The success of the exhibition will come as no surprise to admirers of Philip Smith whose cityscapes and elegant, wistful landscapes have been snapped up by eager clients. Singing our praises, Franck Rosello, Operations and Projects Manager of etc. venues, says: ‘The private view organised with Artzu Gallery was a real hit with our clients and staff. High quality artwork in our venues are key to the look and feel of our business. Artzu Gallery was certainly the right partner for our event, providing inspiring and engaging quality pieces of artwork which felt connected instantly to our space. Our clients loved it and provided a unique and exclusive backdrop to our event. The very personable service from Artzu Gallery also meant that the project was most pleasurable, professional and seamless to organise’. Both Church House and etc. venues are keen to sponsor the next event which is the Matt Wilde exhibition at Dexter House towards the end of the year. Put this in your diary!

By Philip Smith 

The exhibition will be held at:

The Hatton, 51- 53 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8HN

Thursday 25th June – Tuesday 21st July

For maps and directions please see: www.etcvenues.co.uk

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Philip Smith’s first  London solo exhibition…..

Philip Smith’s summer exhibition explores a nostalgic world illuminated with momentous skies and untold stories. It is not evident as to how each story will unfold, we can only catch a fleeting moment in this cinematic vision Smith has created.  

The single figures and automobiles in most of his Smith’s work evoke many of the opening scenes of Midwest American cinema. North By Northwest, Paris Texas or the haunting menace of the Hitcher, you are always left with a sense of space under powerful skies. His warm palate of evening and dawn colours convey the returning home or the beginning of a journey.

The headline sponsors of the Lost Horizon exhibition are:

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Philip Smith | Portfolio

After university, I took a teaching qualification, and taught art for a few years, until the birth of my first daughter. I gave up teaching to concentrate on raising my daughter and painting. 

Over the intervening years I have been able to hone my style and focus on landscape painting. In some respects these have developed more into “skyscapes”. I also brought figuration into the landscape setting.

As a counterpoint to the big, empty landscapes and skyscapes, I have also focused on cityscapes. Even though by definition the subject matter is ‘cluttered’, I see them as essentially the same, using the backgrounds as an alternative narrative.

I paint in a near abstract way, working often without reference, creating from imagination, from memory; balancing colour, shape, tone and rhythm, trying to capture a transience, a certain mood.

I work quite slowly, building the painting from a black or blue base, applying layers of decreasingly thick paint, until finally, on the topmost layer, it is often scrubbed on almost dry, to create a soft almost bruised look to the image.

I have certain themes – leaving, returning, uncertainty. There is often a loss to the characters that inhabit the landscapes, an introspection, a poignancy. They are like characters from scenes of which we are all familiar. I like to think their narrative is undetermined. The story is theirs. We may guess at their story, but we do not know. We may see them, but we cannot be sure.

Often the title will give an idea to the scene, but that is often more a starting point than a prescriptive, decisive outcome. A painting called “The Homecoming” only really tells the viewer that a character is in the process of return. Where they have been, what has brought them back and what welcome will greet them on their return, only they know, and they are not telling…

More of Philip’s work