Maddy Mathews

In the tradition of Pop Art, my work takes aesthetic inspiration from the media I consume. My pencil crayon drawings reference celebrity fan culture, advertisements, computer games, and television. I diligently render screen-bright colours and textures lifted from widely available, often disposable images found online: e-cards, animated .gifs, promotional graphics, ClipArt, memes and pop-up ads; as well as offline: Sandylion sticker books, found commercial signage, and generic motivational wall art. Though my work riffs on a range of existing imagery, it is done from a place of care and the urge to connect with the media I consume, while confronting my own romantic fantasies. Though I am acutely aware of the artifice of these constructed worlds, I remain seduced by the ideals of true love and happiness that they present. Where there is a projection of fantasy, there is also the desperation of yearning for the unattainable. Through drawings, paintings, and sculptural objects, I aim to illustrate this negotiation of emotional responses, especially the sentimentalization of the suffering of love.

Maddy Mathews is an artist working primarily in drawing and painting. She has participated in Roundtable Residency and performed at Nuit Blanche and the performance art show Doored, curated by Life of a Craphead. Maddy has a public access TV show about her sword called Sword Stuff, and in 2018 designed a t-shirt for punk icon Kathleen Hanna's charity Tees4Togo. In 2012 she was the class valedictorian for NSCAD University where she obtained her BFA.

Image: Audience Reactions, coloured pencil on paper, 22" x 28", 2021