Matthew Hawtin

Category: Homepage Listings

  • Torqued Paintings 2009

    Torqued Paintings 2009

    Good ideas are hard to forget. I think that is what has returned me to the Torqued Paintings. My last developments were completed at the beginning of 2002 in Canada, I then moved to the UK and everything changed. Not my overall aesthetic but certainly the work I was constructing. I found myself reconsidering the work during summer 2008 when I decided to finish some canvases that I never completed. It brought me back to painting, to the canvas, and the surface that curves through space. Now 6 years on there are new avenues to explore, new ways of seeing and new materials to use. My concerns remain, the work being about surface and space, about design and colour, about objects and forms. There are new ideas to manifest and new ways to think. I find myself moving on a familiar path but with the experiences of the past pushing me forward. I look onward and onward I journey.

  • 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.

  • Of Works and Words 2008

    Of Works and Words 2008

    Of Works and Words was an exhibition held at the Lewis Elton Gallery at the University of Surrey in Guildford from February 5 to 21st, 2008. Because of the special nature of the exhibition a dedicated website was set up in order to fully integrate the visual and audio elements of the series.

    The exhibition website can be viewed here:

    Of Works and Words

  • 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

  • Untitled Corner Constructs

    ‘Untitled’ Corner Constructs

    The Corner Constructs have evolved from the construction material of the previous work, an interest in architectural elements and a continual exploration into quantifying space.

    The initial ideas were concerned with the meeting of surfaces, specifically, the (right-angled) spaces that define the volumes we inhabit. This further developed into an investigation of defining of a whole space through the installation of a set number of individual works. By installing a set of constructs in different parts of the space these will define different areas through their placement and orientation. Each piece will relate to each other, in a sequence that guides one through the space. The pieces can either be read as singular objects or as a complete installation and while the work remains static it’s meaning will shift between points.

    The broken line will be defined by the core of each piece and will remain constant throughout the sequence. The surface colours will associate each construct together and will change depending on its given position. Just as mouldings and wainscoting were once used to decorate and define a surface these pieces are concerned with investigating a given space through a broken transmission of forms.

  • Cubes 04

    ‘Untitled’ Cubes & Paintings

    The Cubes are a further extension of the Corner Constructs (CC) and constructed from the same industrial materials. These are the insular cousins of the CC: inert, quiet and unassuming yet also specific and intriguing. The Cubes need no justification other than themselves, the space becomes part of their habitat, where they ‘sit’, just ‘being’. They were inspired from architectural detailing and were born from the ideas of the CC: investigating space through the structural and spatial intervention of forms.

    The Cube paintings can be seen as studies for the 3-dimensional work and explore the relationship of the 2-D plane to 3-D space. Once again ambiguous and quiet, yet they possess a dialogue of thought between abstraction and representational space. These paintings echo the Cubes and highlight the physical nature of space and form.

  • Constructs 03

    “Untitled” Constructs

    The following pieces were inspired by a trip to Prague and subsequent research into altarpieces and devotional paintings. They are not religious, but are religious-like as they do require an interaction in order to fully exist. Part painting, part sculpture and part design, these works are the interwoven aspects between disciplines and are meant for a one to one relationship with the viewer so one can decide how (and when) the work is to be shown.
    In these works I was interested in forming a link between the past and present by “contemporizing” old forms and ideas into pared down essential elements. My work concerns the synthesis of perceptual information and the distillation of these ideas into reductionist constructs.

  • Untitled @ Artcite Inc

    Untitled, (but thoughtfully known as the sexual divide)
    Artcite Inc., Windsor, Canada.

    The main objective of the exhibition is to explore the idea of ‘total space’ within the gallery setting. The notion of ‘total space’ has developed out of a growing interest in architecture and design and the technical and aesthetic considerations involved. Thus all the elements within the particular space are of equal importance to each other; the paintings, the lighting and the resulting light all create an atmosphere of totality.
    Essentially the gallery is split into two zones with the use of coloured fluorescent lighting. Each zone contains the divided sections of a large singular “painting” hung alternately on opposite walls. This installation is an exploration into the basics of design where balance, rhythm, repetition, colour, line and form create an overall emotional and aesthetic perceptual effect within differing zones of colour.

    Total Installation includes:

    8 x Fluorescent lighting fixtures
    16 x 75W Daylight fluorescent tubes
    Red & Blue coloured tubes
    Various electrical supplies

    Wall works
    Various dimensions
    Acrylic urethane topcoat over low-density epoxy prime over epoxy/epoxy filled canvas
    2001

  • Untitled @ Sixty Four Steps

    Untitled, but thoughtfully known as Equivocal Love.
    Sixty Four Steps Contemporary Art, Toronto.

    This new work is a further development of the ‘Torqued’ painting series but in this case there is a greater emphasis on the lighting and “total” installation of the work.
    The piece consists of 2 series of paintings, three angled and three curved with varying dimensions, plus 6 fluorescent fixtures, consisting of blue, yellow and red lamps each designated to a specific zone within the gallery.
    The main objective of this exhibition is to further explore the technical lighting of the paintings and to develop the idea of ‘total space’ within the gallery setting. Thus all the elements within this particular space are of equal importance to each other; the paintings, the light fixtures and the resulting light all create an atmosphere of totality.
    The notion of ‘total space’ has developed out of a growing interest in architecture and design and the technical and aesthetic considerations involved. The concern was how to appropriate singular works of art into an overall perceptual effect while also considering the emotional and aesthetic reactions to the different zones.

  • Torqued Paintings 00-02

    Standing before a history of art that chooses to interpret works as either objects or subjects these works converge at the intersection of different thoughts. Part painting, part sculpture, part design, they are a concentrated amalgamation of spatial concepts imbedded with the emotional residue of the ongoing perceptual experience.

    In a continual progress of developing these ‘Torqued Paintings’ I am currently exploring different size proportions of stretcher frames to expand the visual field into greater extremes of subtly and intensity.