The Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald twin articles
Featured in the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald in both print and online editions.
Hellow webzine: Classical sculptures in our times
Hellow!
A log on art and life from Mexico.
Selected as favourite contemporary Australian artist
Widewalls have selected me as one of their favourite contemporary Australian artists. Widewalls is the ultimate resource for contemporary and urban art. They aim to provide a unique experience for its readers in form of in-depth and quality journalism.
This is what they had to say: The Melbourne-based Matthew Quick is one of those artists who release their works in series, which consist of pieces that are somehow interrelated and create a narrative collaboratively. Two series of paintings have brought him a great deal of attention – the Pure series from 2008, and more recently, the Monumental Nobodies. These series alone say more about the artist than anything else – he is a skillful craftsman, but a witty persona as well, apparently fascinated with mythology and history. The works from Pure series depict cloudy skies (awfully suggestive of symbolism, resembling eternity, Olympic gods perhaps, etc.), overlapped with a series of random inanimate objects. The other series is perhaps even more direct in its intent, representing the actual monuments from around the world, slightly modified by the artist. The well-known historical monuments are accompanied by objects and accessories from the modern life, which creates an ironical image that regards the significance of the fallen empires.
Zupi.
A webzine from Brazil. A translation from journalist Mylena Fontes is: The Australian artist Matthew Quick works mainly with classic painting, using very well the oil on canvas technique. Matthew plays with the image and aesthetic of classical sculptures. In this series he exposes a super contemporary theme with humor and criticism, where the statues are "victims" of an anachronism, a chronological inconsistency.
In UFunk, a French art and design webzine
Influential French webzine UFunk have done a feature, with the following to say: The Australian artist Matthew Quick continues to play with the image and aesthetics of classical sculpture with its fun and offbeat creations, remorselessly abusing Greek statues, the works of the Belle Epoque and other representations from antiquity to great reinforcement of anachronisms.
Booooooom!
Some numbers about Booooooom! 383,000 Facebook followers, 76,000 Twitter followers, 6.7 million Google+ followers, 126,000 Instagram followers. So good to be presented to that audience.
Albany Art Prize
The painting Land of the Free has been selected as one of 30 finalists in the Albany Art Prize. Now in its 9th year, the $25,000 prize continues to play an important role in the cultural and economic development of the Great Southern region.
The three judges were; Stefano Carboni, Director, Art Gallery of Western Australia; Michael Edwards, Director, Contemporary Art Tasmania; and Mark Stewart, Curator, Murdoch University collection, Western Australia.
It's an honour to be chosen for any curated prize and I am extraordinarily fortunate to have been selected for 74 major prizes. Ever wanting to refine my work, this picture has had an multi year gestation and was finally finished only the day before this competition closed.
The exhibition is on from 3 September - 16 October 2016 at Carol Pettersen Hall, Albany Town Hall, 217 York St, Albany WA
WOW x WOW guest writer
The team at WOW x WOW invited to be a guest writer and have my work featured on their site. It a great honour to be featured alongside so many of the great names in the contemporary art scene - who are defining the new visual language and how the future will see the present, one picture at a time. http://wowxwow.com/guest-blog/matthew-quick-gb
Subjects covered include: Influences and triggers, Shelly's Ozymandias, universal themes, the old masters and more
Radio Interview
Interview by Alex McCulloch on The Arts Show. The full interview can be streamed here: http://www.alexmccullochart.com.au/tag/matthew-quick/
Topic covered include: Influences, Cancer, painting techniques and some of the stories behind the paintings such as slavery, Julius Caesar and more
Upper Playground article
The Upper Playground has a story at http://www.upperplayground.com/blogs/news-upperplayground/8220-moments-of-clarity-8221-by-matthew-quick
Stanthorpe Art Prize
The painting The View From Above was selected from over 1400 paintings as a finalist in this year's Stanthorpe Art Prize. It will be on display at the Stanthorpe Regional Gallery, Queensland, from May 26 to July 17.
Solo exhibition and book launch "Based on a True Story"
Opening 6pm Thursday November 12 at Nanda/Hobbs Contemporary,
Level 1, 66 King Street Sydney
Book Launch "Based on a True Story"
This handsome hard-cover, full-colour monograph covers the past 10 years of Matthew's work. Written by Dr Shireen Huda of the Art Gallery Of New South Wales, it's 144 pages long and includes over 180 paintings.
The book launch and exhibition opens at 6pm, Thursday November 12, 2015
Nanda/Hobbs Contemporary
Level 1, 66 King Street Sydney.
Feature article in the Financial Review
Matthew Quick has no time to waste. Asked about Based On A True Story – the Melbourne artist's coming Sydney exhibition that doubles as the launch for his self-published book of the same name – he responds with a brief, potted history. "I'm on my sixth career," he explains, citing illustration, graphic design, writing (his 1991 book Of Gods & Everyday Monsters was short-listed for the Australian/Vogel's Literary Award), university lecturing, and art directing/copywriting. By his mid-30s, he had lived in Australia, the UK, Malaysia and Portugal, and was running his own successful design firm.
Read MoreDoug Moran Portrait Prize
Real Australians Say Welcome
This portrait of provocative artist Abdul Abdulla has been selected as semi-finalist in the $150,000 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize 2015.
Kilgour Art Prize
I'm absolutely thrilled to be elected for the second consecutive year as a finalist in the Kilgour Art Prize. This $50,000 annual prize for figurative and portrait painting awards is assessed by two independent judges and Sarah Johnson, Curator Newcastle Art Gallery.
The exhibition is on show at the Newcastle Art Gallery from 8 November through to 25 January 2016.
Occasionally iconography exists that is so prevalent, so much a part of the zeitgeist, it is difficult to maintain perspective on how ridiculous it really is.
Think of Santa, so obese he’s not in any shape to climb down chimneys, let alone make it around the world in a single night. At least not without having a stroke, anyway. And what of the Playboy Bunny? Inspired by the staff uniform at Bunny’s Tavern, itself named after the proprietor Bernard “Bunny” Fitzsimmons, the ultimate showgirl was unveiled in 1960 and somehow the ears, tail, collar and cuffs transcended their own preposterousness to become a global icon.
Imagine if Fitzsimmons had been nicknamed, say, Chook?
Eutick Memorial Still Life Award
Very pleased to be a finalist in this year's EMSLA, for the 6th consecutive year. As with each year, I'm surrounded by such august company: Louise Feneley, Robert Fenton, Julie Keating, the jaw dropping Angus McDonald (as he is officially known), Julian Meagher, Deb Mostert and Craig Waddell - and many more.
The show is on at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, and begins Friday 6 November 2015
About the painting: You would think that being a fraudster, forger and occultist during the height of the Inquisition would be enough to earn the ire of the Pope.
One of the great grifters, Giuseppe Balsamo wove tales of buried treasure, sold fake “Egyptian” amulets, forged documents, pimped his wife, and despite no having qualifications successfully passed himself off as a physician - to none other than Benjamin Franklin during his Paris sojourn. But none of these were the reason Balsamo (now self styled as Count Alessandro di Cagliostro) was arrested and imprisoned in the infamous Castel Sant’Angelo.
Balsamo’s great crime was being a Freemason. In the 18th century Freemasonry offered an alternative network to that of the church. Like any good business leader, the Pope determined to limit the competition by cracking down. Balsamo he died in prison, demonstrating the hefty price that accompanies some club memberships.
Fisher's Ghost Art Prize
I am very happy to have been selected for the 2015 Fisher's Ghost Art Prize, with my painting Land of the Free. I think this is my 4th time in this prize.
Over the summer, during the interminable February heatwave in my sweltering studio, I repainted a couple of pictures initially made about year earlier. This was one of them. The initial picture was the first time I had tried to capture oxidised bronze, and over the course of the year, I got a whole lot better at it. So the repaint - which was really a whole brand new picture over the top of the old - actually took much longer than the first version. But much, much better. There was a richness to the tones, depth to the object, focal points, depth of field, three dimensionality. And cleaner overall. So getting selected for this means a lot, as it's been quite the journey.
There is a saying: its the journey, not the destination. Well, indeed. But I do wonder where this picture will end up.