Mathew Weir
28 Apr - 27 May 2006
Mathew Weir
28.04.06-27.05.06
The colorful, small-format canvasses of painter Mathew Weir (born 1977, living in London) depict opulently costumed figures in historical livery, who appear to emerge from another time. Weir has mastered a playful take on historical symbols and the clever interplay between his motifs and art-historical innuendo. The harmless, disarming pictures of porcelain figures clearly alter their motifs upon second glance. The ostensible complaisance of cheerful genre-scenes, upon a closer inspection, give way to an unsettling, even abysmal ambiguity. The figures, with course facial expressions and limbs, as if they had been quickly formed from clay, become etched into our memory, where they proceed to mutate into grotesque scarecrows or pitiful, forgotten junk. In plurivalent allusions to current cultural ideals and fears, questions of racism and exploitation are broached. However, Weir suggestively and artfully withholds definite statements and eschews explicit categorizations.
© Mathew Weir, Shit House, 2004-2005, oil on canvas, 38,5 x 27 cm
28.04.06-27.05.06
The colorful, small-format canvasses of painter Mathew Weir (born 1977, living in London) depict opulently costumed figures in historical livery, who appear to emerge from another time. Weir has mastered a playful take on historical symbols and the clever interplay between his motifs and art-historical innuendo. The harmless, disarming pictures of porcelain figures clearly alter their motifs upon second glance. The ostensible complaisance of cheerful genre-scenes, upon a closer inspection, give way to an unsettling, even abysmal ambiguity. The figures, with course facial expressions and limbs, as if they had been quickly formed from clay, become etched into our memory, where they proceed to mutate into grotesque scarecrows or pitiful, forgotten junk. In plurivalent allusions to current cultural ideals and fears, questions of racism and exploitation are broached. However, Weir suggestively and artfully withholds definite statements and eschews explicit categorizations.
© Mathew Weir, Shit House, 2004-2005, oil on canvas, 38,5 x 27 cm