About Ben Matthews
Ben
Matthews continues his exploration into a unique, fantastical
and sometimes unsettling universe. The characters from this
place exist at the edges of sideshows, of archaic advertisement
and of storybooks none of which ever quite manifested themselves
in our reality. Works on canvas and on folding, triptych panels
unveil a mysteriously disconcerting series of images and scenes
from this not-quite time/place.
"Working
in a poster format, I try to give the impression that my paintings
have already served their purpose. They are documentation's
of people, places, events, products, and moments in time that
did, did not, or will exist.
For
my characters, I use antique photographs collected at flea markets.
These people who have been sold for a few bucks are recreated
in my work. They are given new names and meaning.
The
final step to completing a work is to age it. By doing so, I
try to give them a sense of reality. They exist as used objects
with mysterious pasts. They may have been in someone's basement
collecting dust, found at an abandoned museum, or bought at
a pawnshop for $2.00.
My
latest series of work consists of studies by explorers, scientists
and inventors from a different but parallel history. They depict
odd creatures that have adapted atypically or have been created
by man for some malevolent purpose. They may be pages taken
from a mad scientist's notebooks showing preliminary ideas for
bizarre inventions or they can be cryptic field studies from
unknown expeditions."
- Ben Matthews
