Carp Matthew

My work is about nothing. It is about yearning. It is about the lunatic pursuit of purpose and meaning, in empty spaces and dead ends, in brain-bending fantasy and fanatic ideology, be it religious, political, occult or otherwise. It is about hiding and lying and the myth of progress.

The figures I paint are lost, in rooms without doors and voids without walls, beyond the vaguest glimmer of reality with no hope of return, exactly as they would wish it were they ever again able even to perceive the notion. They are symbolic of this moment, its total capitulation to impenetrable narcissism and shameless indulgence of base instinct oblivious to consequence, to the hell-bent suicide of consumer capitalism, their mutations manifestations of dying spirit and sickness of soul, of their owners repressed fears, inadequacies, distant desires and inescapable solitude. They long for what they can never have without deceiving themselves. Worse than tragic, their movements are meaningless.

My work is a meditation on this predicament, every piece either an attempted exorcism of futility or a desperate grasping at fleeting beauty and momentary loss of self-conciousness to said pleasure. A tangible solidification of the creeping nihilism tha...

BA Hons Graphic Design - Staffordshire University.
No formal art training.

Selected recent exhibitions:
2018 - The Other Art Fair Autumn edition, Victoria House, London.
2018 - The Other Art Fair Spring edition, Victoria House, London.
2017 - The Other Art Fair Autumn edition, Old Truman Brewery, London.
2017 - 'Pitch Black' group show at Leontia Gallery, London.
2017 - The Other Art Fair Spring edition, Victoria House, London.
2017 - Pancakes and Booze Art Show, London Studio Spaces E1.
2016 – Creative Debut’s Showcase, The Black and White Building, Shoreditch, London.
2015 – Proparty, The Winter Salon, Notting Hill, London.
2014 – Manor House Art Show at the Inhouse Film Festival, Manor House, London.
2012 – Don’t Follow Leaders, Birmingham Central Library.
2011 – Various Bastards, Chameleon Gallery, Walsall.