Bobby Mathieson: Solo Exhibition

September 29 - October 16, 2016
Opening Reception: Thurs. Sept. 29th, 6-9pm

Bobby Mathieson captures historically or culturally significant moments in his work, and expands on the emotional content through his paintings and imagery through the use of vibrant shocking colour and form. Positioning historically and culturally significant subjects within a visceral and highly textured figurative expressionism, Mathieson’s paintings reflect the emotional complexity shaping his relationship to these figures through a portraiture that is at once provocative, grotesque and deeply reverent.

The intuitive use of brushstroke and palette knife creates a sense of controlled chaos, marking the works with the rhythm and immediacy of their production. This alla prima or wet-on-wet technique bears an element of the violence and gestural abstraction associated with action painting while retaining key facial cues to allow a certain level of recognition and iconic legibility in the obscured faces of subjects. Vampire teeth and pointed ears become playful motifs in Mathieson’s work, confounding the elegance of posture and pose with monstrous and absurd qualities, forming characters that appear both playful and terrifying at the same time.

Bobby Mathieson is a graduate of the Vancouver Film School (degree in Classic Animation) and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in British Columbia (BFA). He has had numerous solo exhibitions with Neubacher Shor Contemporary in Toronto, ON and has presented his work at art fairs such as Art Toronto, Art Southampton, AQUA Art Fair in Miami, FL and VOLTA in New York. His work has also been featured in the Art With Heart auction as well as auctions at Angell Gallery for several years. Bobby Mathieson lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.