Matthew Lawrence

Workspace Program Resident 1995

Since arriving in the states from my native England I have been producing images which are a twisted, perverse reflection of the American dream. I use appropriated images in a whirlpool of visual mayhem. It is in this pictorial chaos that I enter a gray area where I may raise more questions about my work than give answers. I comment on art as being an object of material obsession but do not desire for my own work to be viewed this way.

My subject matter is a combination of commercial icons intermingled with racial overtones. The work also has a comedic savagery that explores the darker side of humor. A suburban, middle class anxiety engulfs the viewer within the work. Pieces often are centered around myself, and the facade of masculinity within this society… My work has the physical presence of sculptures, visual aesthetics of paintings and the historical power of the printed image. —Matthew Lawrence

About the Artist

Matthew Lawrence (b. York, England) received his BFA degree from Brighton University in England in 1988 and his MFA in Printmaking from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1990. Since 1988, he has been a resident of the United Sates and currently residing in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.