Matt is a contemporary artist working in figurative painting and drawing, almost always centred on the human figure, to explore themes of Eros and Thanatos – desire and mortality, often intertwined. Realist technique lends total conviction to images that are, on closer inspection, not quite reasonable: a leg balanced on the tip of a closed umbrella, a bird perched at the knee; a calm, classical setting that reveals the violence of a throat being opened; red-stained hands raised in a strange gesture, as if making an offering – or a warning.
Objects and motifs are chosen deliberately, often carrying symbolic weight drawn from folklore, myth, or art-historical convention, reworked through a range of historical and modern cultural influences. This element is staged plainly and lit carefully, so unease builds only after the eye has accepted the picture as true. Matt also practises straight portraiture as a discipline in its own right.
Working primarily in acrylic and graphite, Matt is drawn to traditional methods for their tangibility in a digital age – a hand-made object with a real risk of failure. A piece can take many long hours, and that time is rarely just execution: sustained attention often refines a work’s intention, sometimes shifting it considerably, so the process becomes its own form of exploration.
Born and raised near Manchester, Matt lived for many years in North Yorkshire before settling in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he currently lives and works.
Selected Exhibitions
2026 / Society of Graphic Fine Art 105th Annual Open Exhibition
Mall Galleries, London
2026 / SSA 127th Annual Exhibition
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2024 / SSA 126th Annual Exhibition
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2023 / East Coast Open
Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough
2023 / Ferens Open
Ferens Gallery, Hull
2020 / New Light
Touring exhibition: Scarborough, Newcastle, Carlisle, London
2019 / East Coast Open
Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough
2019 / Threshold
Whitby
2017 / East Coast Open
Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough
2016 / Old Parcels Office
OPO, Scarborough
2016 / Dark Arts
Whitby Pavilion, Whitby
2014 / Hoist Yer Colours
Whitby
2014 / The Great Xhibition
Whitby
Press
2023 / Yorkshire Times
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Awards
2026 / ‘Conviction’ selected for the Society of Graphic Fine Art Prize whilst on display at the SSA 127th Annual Exhibition
