Creative Spaces the feature gallery at Red Bull NZ headquarters welcomes the exhibition of Matt Arbuckle.
Recently awarded with 1st runner up in the prestigious Wallace Art Awards, Matt Arbuckle is an up-and-coming young Auckland artist who after just finishing his degree has had the opportunity to show off his work throughout New Zealand including exhibitions in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch
His paintings take the appearance of objects that are wrestled with, or perhaps even beaten into submission. His images go through radical transformations as they are meticulously constructed and deconstructed, with what remains in the finished work, a lucid tension of these various transformations at their most poignant. A neo-expressionistic painting style is undermined by the idiocy of the cartoon figures present, especially given the almost tragic emotions they seem to express. The phone box and cartoon aesthetic motif hints at narrative, but this is a dead-end if you are looking for a sincere intention to communicate – it is more like a tongue-and-cheek play on historical conventions. Matt’s painting is no joke however; within it there is a real attempt to bring the languages of both high and pop culture into new-fangled combinations.
His latest work will go on display in his exhibition entitled ‘Wall Furniture’, on Wednesday November 4th, Shed 2, 90 Wellesley Street, Auckland.
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