MATTHEW QUICK - Modern Glory
MODERN RENAISSANCE
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOU, THE PERSON BEHIND THE WORK WE SEE, WHERE ARE YOU BASED AND HOW OLD ARE YOU?
I’ve always painted but managed to distract myself with a few alternative careers. I’ve worked as a designer, art-director, lecturer & writer, with my first novel short-listed for the Vogel Literature Award. A cancer epiphany in my 30’s focused my return to fine art.
While respect from artists reached a peak a couple of centuries ago, I’m excited to be living in a time when so much great work is being made and is so accessible.
Based in Australia, I previously lived in Asia and - including several months encamped beneath a grand piano. I’ve spent nights under stars in India, under-ground in Italy, under surveillance in Burma and under-nourished in London. My scariest moment was having machine-gun shoved in my face during Nepalese anti-monarchy riots, although crashing a paraglider into a forest was also something of a highlight.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT WHEN AND WHY YOU STARTED YOUR PAGE?
I was onto Facebook and Instagram early, and then squandered my first mover advantage with both. Partly it was because I was distracted doing other things. But who I am kidding: I just didn’t get what game-changers both platforms would be.
My work is social abstract & realistic
Matthew Quick
What does your art focus on?
I’m interested in stories and ideas, particularly weird stuff that inexplicably survives to become a part of contemporary culture. In painting this, you hold up a mirror to the bizarreness of the world around you; everything from ideals of power to the ever-changing notions of what is considered beautiful.
Besides your computer/phone, what is the one thing you cannot work without?
Photoshop. I feel a little sad for future generations: whereas previously artists would leave a legacy of interesting working drawings though which you can chart the development of an idea, now all that work is done on photoshop. The destination is the same, but the catalogue of development is lost each time I save a new version.
Has Instagram influenced your work?
I value the access it provides to the work of others. There are so many artists out there at the very top of their game, and I am continually inspired by the breadth of their skills and ideas. And this is a free gallery, open 24 hours a day, with an exhibition schedule that is refreshed every minute. As someone who takes inspiration and influences from the world around, the ability to cherry pick has expanded from a tree to an orchard.
Your work gets a lot of attention on social media, how does getting online recognition changes the way you perceive and produce your art?
I call posting on social media; Feeding The Beast. It is voracious, insatiable, never satisfied. It seems that whatever you post is instantly consumed, instantly disposable. Given it takes me a minimum of 17 days to paint a picture, plus many more coming up with ideas, researching subjects, shooting reference photos, preparing the surface and working on the layout, that a new painting gets chewed up in just a second can be disheartening.
Name three Instagram accounts you follow religiously.
@historycoolkids @plastik and @hifructosemagazine
Who is your dream collaboration?
The temptation is to think of artists who work is similar to and complimentary of your own. But that would lead to more of the same. I would love to work with artists whose aesthetics and scope are different from my own:
Richard Roth, for his elegant simplicity
Jeff Koons for his wonderfully kitsch aesthetic and sheer chutzpah
Mehdi Ghadyanloo for his refined ideas to through deceptively simple images
And Mark Tansy; social observation, history, wry humor and brilliant technical ability all wrapped in one package.
Anything you would like to say to our Plastik audience?
What artists make now is what will be remembered into the future. So is you meet an artist, respect them, love them, feed them.