DANCERS Painting

Bobby Mathieson attended Emily Carr Institute of Fine Art and Design, and lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.Mathieson’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Toronto, New York City, Southampton and Miami. My practice shifts from painting scenes in which haunting visceral floral laden landscapes and still life expressively inform their subjects. These images move toward a form of portraiture that is increasingly locating these signifiers within the subjects themselves. The intuitive use of brushstroke and palette knife create a sense of controlled chaos, marking the works with the rhythm and immediacy of their production. This alla prima technique bears an element of the violence and gestural abstraction associated with action painting while retaining key facial cues to allow a certain level of recognition and iconic legibility in the obscured faces. Vampire teeth and pointed ears along with heavy word play in titling become playful motifs confounding the elegance of posture and pose in the works.