Alexandra Matthew’s paintings juxtapose urban landscape within boundaries both limited and expanded by light. Each work is its own entity but comprise multiple constituent compositions with light, natural and artificial, the defining and amalgamating theme.
Daytime sees the sun dominating light and shadow, with the verandahs, awnings and landscapes of Queensland architecture responding and protecting. But at night streetlights and light switches take control. Fragmented and shaped by electricity, incongruously, nightfall can expose things lost or rendered inconspicuous in daylight. Our suburbs lately have seemed more muted while we have sheltered in our homes, but glowing windows, street lights and the neon aura of the CBD push back the dark and add their magic, revealing things uniquely and distinctively.
Having moved into her Red Hill ‘Renovator’s Delight’ 37 years ago, Alexandra deciphers the language of early Queensland architecture. Painted in a hybrid of illustrative and realism, the detail is achieved through revisiting a view multiple times on neighbourhood walks.
Having won the People’s Choice Award for the Clayton Utz Award 2019 and with being shortlisted as a finalist in numerous art prizes, Alexandra Matthews’s urban landscapes capture and interpret Queensland’s iconic architectural heritage and lifestyle.
Opening Event: 3-5pm 15 May 2021
Image: Gaze Upon Dusk | Alexandra Matthews, 55 x 65cm | Acrylic on canvas
