Matthew Hawtin

Category: Drawings

  • White Noise | SB Contemporary | 2019

    White Noise

    SB Contemporary
    Windsor, Canada
    January 17 to March 9, 2019

    Music, or shall we say, sound, actually plays an important role in my work. Whenever I’m in the studio there is always something emanating from the speakers and I feel there is always a soundtrack being created with each new work or series. Although my work is technically silent, I like to imagine the possible sound(s) or maybe noise, coming from each individual painting.

    After the large-scale installation ‘Fallout’ shown at the Art Gallery of Windsor in 2016 I had been thinking more about the placement of works in a space. The nature of the frame’s shape allows the canvases to be rotated to different orientation, thus giving the work a sense of freedom in the placement. With this freedom there is a randomness of composition that can occur when a set of canvases are seemingly scattered on a wall. It’s in this randomness that relationships start to form and dialogues begin, between the paintings and the space.

    In the case of the new installation called ‘White Noise’ I had been thinking about ‘Fallout’ on a smaller scale and how the dialogue between the works and a space also suggests a type of visual ‘noise’. Something like the hum of a building, a city or a highway, this subtle difference between what is being heard as noise or sound. I thought about tiny bits of visual static, like those on a TV screen and how that sound (or noise) would interact with a given space on the subatomic level creating distortions and vibrations we would hear but not see. In ‘White Noise’ I wanted to represent the notion of these scattered fragments of sound frozen in space.

    Alongside the installation are selected drawings that serve as studies to explore different colours, textures and placements of possible paintings. The drawings are titled in the order they were produced with ‘AF’ referring to the shape of the canvas as the ‘abstract frame’. Drawing has always been a more immediate way for me to experiment and develop ideas and forms the backbone of my art practice as a way to push past creative blocks and keep the working evolving.

    Note: Images of the exhibition were taken during the day and at night. This was to try and capture the different surface hues that the iridescent paint conveys at different times of the day.

  • Transposing | AGW 2016

    Transposing

    Art Gallery of Windsor
    April 23 – June 5, 2016
    Curated by Srimoyee Mitra

    The Art Gallery of Windsor is proud to present a mid-career survey exhibition of Matthew Hawtin’s past, present and future work. Born in the UK and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Hawtin spent formative years as a teenager hopping across the river to Detroit with his brother, Richie Hawtin, where they would visit art exhibitions by day and DJ at underground parties by night. It was there that the influence of the industrial-style of Detroit techno music permeated his art practice. From an early age the Hawtin brothers worked together, influencing one another. For example, while Matthew focused on his visual practice, Richie, his brother, started his own record labels and composed electronic music. Soon Matthew’s artwork was featured on Plus 8 Records and Minus Records, respectively, a relationship that has grown as their practices evolved and the brothers matured.

    Matthew studied Fine Arts at York University, Toronto and received his Masters in the Art in Architecture program at the University of East London, UK. He was influenced early on by the abstract-expressionists and then became deeply influenced by the minimalist philosophy that emphasized the simplicity of form, colour, shape, size and textures. As he developed his repertoire, Matthew organically infused the spatial characteristic of early electronic music to the formalist aesthetic vocabulary of minimalism to arrive at the Torqued Painting series. These paintings lie at the intersection of sculpture, design and architecture. Their three-dimensionality encompasses a sense of movement, rhythm and energy – emerging out of the wall and immersing the viewer in their vibrant colours and unusual forms.

    Over the last decade, Matthew has experimented with completely removing the physical frame of the work and leaving only a painted surface, like a floating futuristic plane devoid of gravity. For Matthew Hawtin: Transposing, he will premiere a major site-specific installation composed of multiple torqued paintings created in response to the architecture of the Gallery space. These will be presented in conjunction with his early works on canvas and cover art for record label releases, to new and recent paintings on canvas and fiberglass. Altogether, the exhibition promises to take viewers on a journey that tells the story of the formation of a truly local artist whose varied work has resonated with a global audience.

  • Torqued Series 2012

    Torqued Series 2012

    The idea for the Torqued Panel grew out of the Torqued Painting series of 2009 when I was exploring the possibility of removing, or in the case of the 2009 work, of ‘hiding’ the structure of the paintings to focus more intently on only surface. The main concept was to completely remove the physical structure of the work but maintain a painted torqued plane that floated off the wall.

    This series can be understood in two phases. Phase I can be seen as the technical stage in the development of this new work, working with a new material (fiberglass) and a time of learning, frustration but then clarity. Phase II marks the ‘eureka’ moment as the new direction became clear with the decision to rotate the hanging position of each panel and individually trimming down the panels into various proportional shapes.

    In the early stages of the series I was interested in trying to achieve something ‘other-worldly’ and in a sense, futuristic, and as the work developed it has carried forward these notions yet investigates this through ideas concerning myth. I also know that whatever I think the work is about, it will also take on a life of its own as I continue to develop the series and the work progresses. I have felt this already as the works have become individualized, taking on colourful personalities of their own. Undoubtedly, I know that it is also my own life that is layered upon the surface, through the slow repetitive process of painting and sanding, over and over to achieve the ‘right’ surface. The Torqued Panels, like the Torqued Paintings, can be viewed as formal objects that explore the basics principles of art; line, shape, colour and form, yet they also exist in that space where thoughts and feelings can live; as simple objects of meditation that reflect our daily emotions.

  • Dimensions 2012

    Dimensions Exhibition:

    2 February – 26 February, 2012
    Opening reception – 2 February – 19:00
    RED Gallery
    3 Rivington Street
    EC2A 3DT
    Shoreditch, UK

    Promo video

    MH interview

    Dimensions Catalogue

    Parallels

    Symmetry, futurism, bleeding edges, infinitely repetitive layers, contrasting textures and hidden messages. These words that describe Canadian artist Matthew Hawtin’s paintings, prints and sculpture could easily apply to the music made by his brother, techno producer Richie Hawtin. It’s in this solo exhibition, showcasing some of the art Matthew has made in conjunction with his brother’s record labels Plus 8 Records and Minus Records, that we can see the parallels between the two mediums.

    Since he started making art linked to record labels in the early 1990s, 39-year-old Matthew has been steadily refining his work. The minimalism, clean lines, abstract concepts and layering that defines his work have been there since the beginning.
    “My work has slowly been minimalised and reduced,” he says. “I think that’s what any artist wants to do, whatever medium they work with. They want their work to be refined until it’s down to its pure essence; achieve an idea in its purest form, in a way.”

    The abstract shapes and colours on Matthew’s paintings for Richie’s F.U.S.E project, made in 1993, hint at his original ideas about symmetry and space. His concept for these pieces was to create 3D space on the 2D surface. Those paintings ended up becoming the artwork for his brother Richie’s ‘Dimension Instrusion’ album and 12” release, that he put out under his F.U.S.E moniker.

    Examine the work that follows these early pieces and you can see how Matthew’s minimal style and reductive aesthetic intersects similar points in the development of electronic music. The early days of putting paint on canvas have developed into the flowing futurism of his fiberglass-manufactured then hand-painted Torqued Panels series. Matthew’s methods of making art have become more advanced, his materials more refined and the process more technical in parallel with the technological advances in making electronic music. In this respect, this exhibition is the story of Plus 8 Records and Minus Records told visually.

  • Drawings 2004-2009

    Drawings 2004-2009

    Drawings form the backbone of my artwork. The immediacy of drawing has always helped me explore my current work while also being a space in which to experiment; a safe place to let thoughts wander and new ideas emerge. Physically, drawings are the visual documents and files of the mind. Emotionally they carry the immediacy of an artist’s thoughts and actions. It is direct and personal for the artist and the viewer. There is nothing more pleasing than the simplicity of pencil marks on a clean sheet of paper.
    The importance of drawing was a direct influence of Eugenio Tellez, my professor at York University in Canada. As well as making beautiful drawings as part of his painting process, drawing was a way for him to mediate on ideas that may or may not see fruition as a painting. More importantly, for him, and now me, drawing and doodling was a way to unblock the mind in order to think clearer. If you didn’t know what to do, he would tell us to draw or doodle. If you found yourself in a corner or blocked somehow, drawing was his answer. And now it is mine.

  • min2MAX | Berlin Exhibition

    min2MAX | Exhibition

    MINUS returns with a new compilation simply titled ‘min2MAX’. The package is conceptually connected and musically collected by the eyes and ears of Minus bringing together a variety of dynamic music through a creative index of outlets. The sound of the collection features all new and exclusive material from established Minus artists. Fourteen new musical works collected, all connected by shared inspirations, international friendships and unique reactions towards dance music, assembling the minimal sound of ‘min2MAX’. As part of the ‘min2MAX‘ release, Matthew Hawtin will be releasing a limited edition print packaged within the vinyl edition. Entitled ‘Spatial Study’ the print is a companion piece to a brand new solo exhibition of his artwork at the Circleculture Gallery in Berlin. The min2MAX|Exhibition opening will be held at Circleculture Gallery on April 28th (open to the public) and will be on display until June 9.

    For the Berlin min2MAX|Exhibition, Matthew continues to develop his visual language by investigating the concept of cubic space. The show will feature artwork that has been created to investigate specific spaces within a space and gallery. He’s concerned with the way each form interacts with one other and the total space; how forms can become imbedded perhaps becoming structural analogies in their own right. By taking a minimal form and maximizing it’s potential, Matthew is producing visual work that compliments the melodic structures of electronic music.

    Circleculture Gallery
    Gipsstrasse 11
    Berlin Mitte
    Germany

    http://www.circleculture.com