In his latest work, Matthew Hindley explores themes of darkness with his rich oils and acrylics. These paintings capture figures in a moment of strong emotion leaving the audience wondering what might happen next.
The scenes depicted take on a cinematographic feel – characters are recognisable from painting to painting, brought to life on his large-format work surfaces to face different enigmas in each composition. Within his work, Hindley explores the subtleties of humane darkness, with studio as testing ground for a potential creative utopia.
Formally, while the works are figurative renditions of moments in time, their surfaces tilt towards abstraction, throwing a thin veil over realism in favour of interpretive memory. Hindley explores the generosity of the colour black, creating visual planes as darkly exhilarating as the fundamental schizophrenia of confronting issues of identity, sexuality and death. Schizophrenia also confronts pop culture head-on in his intriguing choice of titles – drawn from a range of influences, from pop song lyrics to fragments of speech found in psychology textbooks to Victorian poetry to Twitter trends.
Want more? See iArt Gallery for paintings by Matthew Hindley.