Matthew Johnson | FireWorks Gallery

Artist Tabs

Selected works

FW13605 Inflection II	FW13610 Fugue	FW13633 Untitled
FW15536 One View (Two Aspects) diptych	FW17387 Tropos IV (cloud)	FW17390 Tropos III
FW18984 Hybrid I	FW18985 Hybrid II	FW18998 Inflection VII
FW18999 Inflection VI	FW19000 Inflection VIII	FW19372 Candela edition of 3
FW19375 Effusio Stratum ed. 3/3	FW20669 After dawn marine	FW20670 Verte dawn

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Bio

Born: 1963 London UK

Matthew’s artistic apprenticeship has been an eclectic if not a modernist one. A Melbourne-based painter, Matthew’s diverse travel and cultural experiences are distilled through the archetypal filter of oil and pigment. The underlying compositional structures of his paintings are repetitive – grids, geometric patterns, stripes or sequential arrangements drawn from nature. Matthew has has completed numerous residencies throughout Europe and Australia. As well as having his work held in numerous private and corporate collections nationally and internationally, Matthew is continually developing site specific architectural installations throughout Australia.

Story/Statement

Abstract artist Matthew Johnson is best known for his oil paintings of delicately blended circles, like pixels of a magnified picture blurred into patterns, some with solid circle works and digital prints.

WEATHER PATTERNS III (2024)

Now in its third iteration, Weather Patterns III groups Melbourne based artist Matthew Johnson (also showing a survey of works on the ground floor) with Indigenous artists Ronnie Tjampitjinpa (Western Desert, NT) and Rosella Namok (Far North QLD) in the mezzanine gallery. All three artists work in the realm of nonfigurative abstraction, reflecting imagery and designs that say something about the climate of their surroundings in melodic patterns.

New paintings by Matthew Johnson continue his interplay with the balance of light and dark, combining a jambalaya of subdued pixelated oil colours. These circles of light ultimately billow up as a revelatory expression into a sensory atmosphere

MATTHEW JOHNSON - SITE UNSEEN PART I: SELECTED MIXED MEDIA WORKS 1993 - 2012

There is a circular evolution with these selected works in this exhibition. Site Unseen is something that we use as a colloquial term, but as a term of investigation it reverts back to the idea of searching for civilization and cultural information, like archaeology, digging it out of your own soul to expose what it actually is there. This is Part 1. Part 2 will be at a later date when we will then talk to the architectural works (integrated art) that I have created as well. Some of the works in this particular show allude to that idea of surface or form or may look like a ceramic or may infer a different type of relationship to how we see art.

Courtesy of the Artist 2024

WEATHER PATTERNS I (2015) & II (2017)
My work emulates an abstract environment based upon variables in nature and the manmade. For the exhibitions Weather Patterns I and II, I have imbued different observations; one is based on a singular view with shifting change, and the other on the filtration of light in a singular viewpoint - an environment affected by the abiotic. A static viewpoint, of a solid form or element, is constantly veiled and affected by both visible and indivisible forces. There is no one single state of condition. Weather remains the kinetic makeup of atmosphere.

Courtesy of the Artist 2015

RESONANCE MAY-JUNE 2010
Johnson’s artistic apprenticeship has been an eclectic if not a modernist one. Diverse travel and cultural experiences are distilled through that archetypal filter of oil and pigment. The underlying compositional structures of his paintings are repetitive—grids, geometric patterns, or sequential arrangements drawn from nature. Dominating the surface, Johnson relies on intense colour-forming atmospheric particles, mostly spheres—the substance of memory and illumination. Ultimately, Johnson presents painting as an illusory field for the viewer to penetrate.

Education
1984 Graduated National Art School East Sydney, Higher Art Certificate

Solo Exhibitions
2024 Matthew Johnson - Site Unseen Part I: selected mixed media works 1993 - 2012, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Sanctum, Olsen Annexe, Sydney, NSW
2019 Nirdakiy (Middle Creek), FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2018 Effusio, Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2017 Illume, NKN Gallery, VIC
2016 Matthew Johnson Candescere, Olsen Irwin, Sydney
2015 Imago Mundi, Italy
2014 Melbourne Art Fair, Hill Smith Gallery
2014 Intermission, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2014 Asia Contemporary Art Show, Conrad, Hong Kong
2014 Matthew Johnson Selected Works, Olsen Irwin, Sydney
2013 Collective Identity [les], Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, NSW
2013 A Private View, Glen Eira Gallery, Caulfield
2012 Heat, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2011 Summer Solstice II, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2011 Blue August, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2011 Eclectica Exhibition Series (I and III), FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2010 Miscellanea, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2009 The Shilo Project, Ian Potter Museum, touring Regional Gallery of Victoria and New South Wales
2009 Sculpture + Works on Paper, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2008 From the Air, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2008 Blue: a group show, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2007 George Petelin Gallery, Gold Coast
2007 Greenhill Galleries, Perth
2007 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2006 Two Fields, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2006 Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2005 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Greenhill Galleries, Perth
2005 Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2004 Lines III, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2004 Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2004 Greenhill Galleries, Perth
2003 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2003 Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2002 Unforseen, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2002 Greenhill Galleries, Perth
2002 Ben Grady Gallery, ACT Canberra
2001 Tim Olsen Art Dealers, Sydney
2001 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2000 Tim Olsen Art Dealers, Sydney
1999 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1999 Olsen Carr Art Dealers, Sydney
1998 Moments in Civilisation, The Vault Contemporary Art Space
1998 Bundaberg Arts Centre, Queensland
1998 Mappings, James Allen Gallery, Toronto, Canada
1996 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1996 Of One Of Many, Olsen Carr Art Dealers, Sydney
1995 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1994 Room Exhibition, Imperial Hotel, New Delhi
1994 Room 32, Regents Court Hotel, Sydney
1993 Studio Exhibition, Sydney
1992 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1991 Studio Exhibition, Sydney
1990 Studio Exhibition, Sydney
1989 Studio Exhibition, Sydney
1989 Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne

Group Exhibitions
2024 Strange New Ways, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2024 Weather Patterns III, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2024 Yellow Meadow, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Twelve Ways, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Twelve Artists, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Still in the Desert, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2019 Matches 6: Three Clusters, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2016 Matthew Johnson Candescere, Olsen Irwin, Sydney
2015 Weather Patterns, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2014 Matthew Johnson Selected Works, Olsen Irwin, Sydney
2014 Intermission, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2014 Asia Contemporary Art Show, Conrad, Hong Kong
2011 Blue August, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2011 Eclectica Exhibition Series (I and III), FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2009 Matthew Johnson New Paintings, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2009 The Shilo Project, Ian Potter Museum touring Regional Gallery of Victoria and New South Wales
2009 Sculpture + Works on Paper, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2008 2 x 2, Tim Olsen Gallery Annex, Sydney
2008 Block Projects, Melbourne
2008 Contemporaneous Australian Contemporary Painting 1, Wangaratta, Victoria
2007 Points of Departure, Tobey Fine Arts, New York
2007 Views on Abstraction, Hill Smith Gallery, South Australia
2007 Tactile Imagination: Design Research Processes, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
2007 Utopian Visions & The Slump of Paradise, Block Projects, Melbourne
2006 Matthew Johnson Recent Works, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2006 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
2006 Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart
2005 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
2005 Stanley Art Prize, Stanley, Tasmania
2004 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Buildings Carlton, Melbourne
2004 Lines III, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2003 ART PARIS, Carrousel de Louvre, Paris
2003 Fresh Paint, Greenhill Galleries, Perth
2003 Cube + Nodrum + Abrahams, Cube Gallery, Adelaide
2003 Depth of Field, Shepparton Art Gallery VIC & MUMA Melbourne
2002 Good Vibrations, Heide Museum of Art, Heidelberg
2002 Exposition collective, Conseil General de Loire Atlantique, Nantes, France
2002 Towards Colour, McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin VIC
2002 Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2002 Greenhill Galleries, Perth
2002 Lines II, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2001 ART PARIS, Carrousel de Louvre, Paris
2001 Australie Visages d’un continent, Galerie Visage de l’Art, Marly-le-Roi
2001 Voyages dans la matière, Atelier Claude Cerf, Paris
2001 Love Colour, Studio 91B, Adelaide
2001 Whitish Christmas, Ben Grady Gallery, ACT
2001–3 Hermanns Art Award, national travelling exhibition
2001 Abstraction: Spirit Light Pure Form, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2000 Accents Australiens, Espace Adamski Designs, Paris
2000 Melbourne Artfair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building Carlton
2000 The Exquisite Corpse, Bendigo Regional Gallery
1999 Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui, Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris
1999 On Any Given Day, Bundaberg Arts Centre, Queensland
1999 Exposition Australie, Bastille, Paris, France
1998 Propositions Australiennes, Galerie Luc Queyrel, Paris
1998 Le Temps du Rêve, Bibliothèque municipale, Le Perreux-sur-Marne
1997 Espace Beziers, Beziers, France
1997 Salon Natasha, Hanoi, Vietnam
1997 Devoured by Paint, Olsen Carr Art Dealers, Sydney
1996 Abstraction Now, Geelong Regional Gallery, Victoria
1996 Flagging the Republic, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
1996 Aer Phosté, Dublin, Ireland
1995 Icon of our Times, Salon Natasha, Hanoi, Vietnam
1995 3x3 Touring Residencies/Sites, Sydney, Christchurch, Auckland, Berlin, Canberra & Beijing
1995 Works on Paper - A Selection, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1995 Moet and Chandon Touring Exhibition, State Galleries of Australia
1995 Hidden Treasures, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1994 Bet Your Life II, Annandale Galleries, Sydney
1994 House, Canberra, curated and co-ordinated by the artist
1994 Re-placing Australian Painting, Rosinis & Test Tube Gallery, Auckland, NZ
1993 Moet and Chandon Touring Exhibition, State Galleries of Australia
1993 Contemporary Australian Painting: Works From The Allen Allen & Hemsley Collection, Westpac Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre
1993 Australian Perspecta 93, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1992 Future City - Art & Architecture, Bond Store, Sydney
1992 Alphabet/Haemorrhage Performances from the Black Box (assistant to Mike Parr), Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
1991 Over East, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The University of Western Australia
1991 Microcosm, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney
1989 Fresh Art, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1989 William Dobell Foundation Art Prize, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney
1989 Fishers Ghost Art Prize, Campbelltown City Art Gallery
1988 Seven New Artists, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
1988 Ariennale, EMR Gallery, Sydney
1988 Australian Contemporary Art Fair 1 (ACAF), Melbourne
1988 Faber Castell Drawing Prize, Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney
1987 Mori Gallery, Sydney
1985 New South Wales Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition
1985 Faber Castell Prize For Drawing, Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney

Commissions
2011 South Morang Station artwork project in association with Cox Architects, Department of Transport Victoria
2010 Coolaroo Station public artwork in association with the Department of Transport VIC, Alessio Fini and Berlin Design and students of Coolaroo South Primary School
2010 CBD Metro Tender Stage artistic consultation in association with Merren Morrison and Grimshaw Architects
2009–2010 Garland Row Sydney screen design for Alex Popov Architects and PJ Developments
2009–2010 CBD Metro Project in association with New South Wales Government, Phillip Cox Architects, Alessio Fini Phi Design Sydney and Hassle Group
2006–08 TAC Building Geelong in association with McGauran Gianni Soon Architects, Melbourne
2005 Glenroy Learning Centre in association with McGauran Gianni Soon Architects, Melbourne
2005 Hue in association with Clement Jackson Burrows & SC Land Developments, Melbourne
2004–05 Moment Multiplex Architects Wood Marsh Consultants Turpin Crawford Studio, Sydney
2004 Emanation Still Life book cover design for The Cook’s Companion Stephanie Alexander, in association with Penguin Group
2002 Sunfield Stage I, Stage II, Stage III Australian Wheat Board Melbourne
2002–3 Yellow House Screens in association with The Yellow House & Philip Bartlett Projects, Sydney
2001 Seasons 4 Panels Chadstone Shopping Centre, Melbourne
1997–98 Babylonian Frieze MG Garage in association with PJ Developments and Alex Tzannes Architects, Sydney

Awards, residencies & grants
2009 Victoria Commercial Architecture Award in association with MGS Architects ML Design, Geelong
2008 Australia Council Barcelona Residency, Spain
2002 Cite des Artes International Artist Residency, Paris
2001 Artist in Residence, Bundanon, New South Wales
2000 Arts Victoria Travel Research Grant, Gabo Island, Victoria
1999–00 Parks Victoria Artist in Residence Program, Pettys Orchard, Templestowe, Victoria
1998–99 Artist in Residence, Bundaberg Arts Centre, Queensland
1995 Travel Research Grant, Australia Council (VACB)
1993 Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, Campbelltown City Gallery, New South Wales
1988 Faber Castell Prize for Drawing

Publications

Andrew Frost, SMH review solo exhibition, Tim Olsen Gallery, August 3, 2012
Ingrid Perez, Matthew Johnson’s Circles of Light, Australian Art Collector, Issue 34 Oct–Dec 2005
Ashley Crawford, Matthew Johnson: Peregrination, The Age Review, Saturday Oct 16, 2005
Martin Shub, Art Right Now, Exhibition News, www.Gallerydiscoverymedia.com.au
Annabel Dean, Swatch this Space, SMH, July 21, 2005
Peter King, Catalogue Essay, Greenhill Galleries, 2005
Betsy Brennan, Vogue Living Apartments, 2004
Ashley Crawford, Catalogue Essay, Christine Abrahams Gallery, 2003
Karen Hall, Catalogue Essay, Depth of Field, Shepparton Regional Art Gallery, 2003
Geraldine O’Brien, News and Features (Yellow House Project), Sydney Morning Herald, 22 March 2003
Karen Hall, Catalogue Essay, Tim Olsen Gallery, 2003
Robert Nelson, Photography and Painting in Cahoots, The Age, Jan 25, 2003
Sandra McLean, Take Your Sunnies, Article, The Courier Mail, Mon 28 October 2002
Zara Stanhope, Catalogue Essay, Good Vibrations, Heide Museum of Art, 2002
Harry Kampianne, À la Découverte de l’Art Australien, Arts Actual, 2000
John Peter Brakewood, Review, Art Actual, 1998
Neville Western, Review, West Australian, June 2002
Michael Eather, Lines II, Catalogue Essay, 2002
Carol Marando, Amateurs Dominate Drawing Prize Review, Faber Castell Prize, Eastern Herald, 1/9/88
Elwyn Lynn, Review of Faber Castell Prize, Weekend Australian, 3/9/88
Ronald Millar, Review of solo exhibition at Christine Abrahams Gallery Melbourne, Herald, 5/7/89
Australian Elle Young, Art May, 1990
Sandra Murray, Over East, Catalogue, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, 1991
Betsy Brennan, Vogue Living, April 1992
Judy Annear, Moet & Chandon Touring Catalogue, 1993
Felicity Fenner, Looking for Life Support, Sydney Morning Herald, July 1994
Felicity Fenner, Review of Moet & Chandon, Sydney Morning Herald, Sept 1993
Davina Jackson, Future City, Art & Architecture Exhibition Catalogue, 1992
Bruce James, Review of Australian Perspecta, The Australian, 9 Oct 1993
John Kavanagh, Youthful Vigour in Perspecta, Business Review Weekly, 22/10/93
Natalie King, Australian Perspecta '93, Exhibition Catalogue, AGNSW
Victoria Lynn, Australian Perspecta 93, Exhibition Catalogue, AGNSW
Ewen McDonald, Contemporary Aust’n Painting: Works from Allen Allen & Hemsley Collection, 1993
Paul McGillick, An Elegant Perspecta, Australian Financial Review, 22 Oct 1993
John Neylon, The Discreet Charm of the Moet Award, Art & Australia Vol 1 No 31 Spring 1993
Nicholas Baume, Room 32, Art & Text, 1995
Rita Carlos, Replacing Australian Painting, Planet Magazine, Jan 1995
Elwyn Lynn, Review of Moet & Chandon Prize, The Australian, 24/2/95
John McDonald, Review of Moet & Chandon Prize, SMH, 15 Feb 1995
Paul McGillick, Review of Moet & Chandon Prize, Financial Review, 26 Feb 1995
Harford Sonia, Matthew Johnson, The Age, 25 April 1995
John McDonald, Review of One of Many, SMH, May 1996
Bernard McAll, Catalogue essay for Christine Abrahams Gallery, 1995
Sebastian Smee, Review of exhibition at Olsen Carr, SMH, 1999
Simeon Kronenberg, Catalogue essay, Christine Abrahams Gallery, March 2001
Andrew Frost, Review of exhibition at Christine Abrahams Gallery, Australian Art Collector, March 2001
Terry Ingram, Christies Contemporary Auction, Financial Review, May 5, 2001

Collections

QUT Art Museum
AIS Insurance Collection
Allen Allen & Hemsley, Sydney
Artbank, Sydney
Australian Wheat Board, Melbourne
BHP Collection, Melbourne
Bundaberg Arts Centre, Queensland
Campbelltown City Art Gallery, NSW
Deloitte Ross Tohmatsu
Gandel Group, Chadstone Melbourne
Faber Castell Collection, Sydney
Freehill Hollingdale & Page, Melbourne
Monash University Museum of Art
Corporate collections throughout Australia and private collections in Australia, Cologne, Munich, New York, Madrid, Seoul, Vancouver (Canada)
Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
Hyatt Hotel, Perth
Heide Museum of Art, Melbourne
Macquarie Bank
Mallesons Stephen Jacques, Melbourne
Moorilla Museum & Art Gallery, Tasmania
News Corporation
RACV
State Bank Victoria
Victor and Loti Smorgon Collection, Melbourne
Visy Industrial Packaging, Melbourne
La Trobe University Museum of Art

Essay

Matthew Johnson

Site Unseen Part I: selected mixed media works 1993 - 2012

30 April 2024 to 8 June 2024

This exhibition presents a cross section of works from 1993 to 2012. The mixed media artwork Frieze (1996) is made of pigment, oil, masking tape, spray paint and wax on Perspex. It's almost like the paint has been entombed inside the CD boxes. What's interesting about this work, and some of the other works in the exhibition, is that it's talking to the idea of entombment of paint and the psychological anthropology of culture and civilization, and how we look at it. Hence the title, Frieze - it talks to the relationship between how art isn't just a separate entity but is connected to architecture and all other mediums; it's all part of an understanding of life and culture. I have installed the painting in exactly the same way I would have 30 years ago, which is fixed to the wall with bluetak. The picture is painted in reverse; what you can see in the foreground is what I can't see when I'm painting it. I'm painting it from behind. It is a blind leap of faith with both its intent and its finalisation. The use of a grid (and breaking the work into the grid) is almost like a form of mapping, a technique that's visible in some of the other works in this exhibition, especially the works on paper. These works take the idea of the grid, breaking it down and transforming it back into nature with a sense of optical play.

Two other CD works, Ad Memoriam (1996) and Paddy Field (1996) also show a lot of experimentation. I'm looking at scratching the surface, a pentimento of effects, and seeing what sticks to the internal side of the CD boxes. I'm painting the background, so it becomes a translucent composite.

Fourth is a sculptural work which was made around the same time and originally shown at the Bundaberg Art Centre in the 90s. Moments in civilizations (1998) references the idea of invisible cities (a book by Italo Calvino). The idea of structure, art and architecture being part in one of the same. The work also alludes to the cultural entity of spatiality, which can exist in the white cube.

The next period in the show moves towards more constellation organic paintings, as with the Aureola series (1999). These paintings are moving away from the grid and looking more like a kinetic celestial night sky or series of lights (like the Min Min lights). There is a highly pigmented surface (using the pigments I've also used in Frieze) painted directly onto the canvas.

The two paintings next to these, France September (1997) and France October (1997) move away again from grids and move into forms of light. I was quite interested in how different the light was living in France at the time so I experimented with sombre atmospheric paintings.

The Cadence works from 2010 are bright stripes on canvas which also allude back to the early CD works, at the same time playing with striation in form and letting it infuse creating a visual humm.

The artist, Brisbane, 2024

Past exhibitions

SOLO

Site Unseen Part I 2024

Weather Patterns III 2024

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