Mathew Tucker

BIO

Born in Hertfordshire, England, Mathew was brought up in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain, St. Lucia and England. In 2014 he moved to New York City to study an MFA in painting at Hunter, he graduated in 2016 and continued his practice in Red Hook, Brooklyn before moving to Wilton, Connecticut in 2020 where he now lives and works.

ARTIST STATEMENT

These paintings are imagined landscapes, they are an idea of what the experience of a landscape might represent. They probe at a perceived separation between us and nature, an otherness about the natural world. Instead of the romantic and sublime illusion of traditional landscape painting, these works point to the gap between the landscape and ourselves.

In recent years my work has focused on re-imagining landscapes as though looking through a window, an opening or a portal. I’ve been using these rectangular forms as framing devices for the landscape as a way of interrupting the pictorial space and separating the viewer from the image. I like the idea of giving the painting some kind of reflexivity as if it is pointing to its own artifice, this also plays with a broader metaphor of our internal experience of looking out upon an external, separate, physical world.

Interview with Matthew Tucker

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? Who or what were some of your most important early influences?

I grew up living in various different countries because my dad worked for a telecommunications company that operated all over the world. We were lucky to get to travel a lot besides just living in different places. My formative years were spent in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and St.Lucia. I think all the travel and frequent changes of scene, the landscape and culture planted the seed in part but I think it was already there from my parents who always had a spirit of adventure and curiosity. The lifestyle they pursued with two young kids in tow was definitely born out of a brave and open mindset and I think that fostered a lot of creativity early on.

Any stories you can share about early memories of how an aspect of the arts impacted you?

Art was always something in the background as far back as I can remember. My mum has always been incredibly creative in a broad range of areas, she could draw and paint and sew and make all kinds of objects. My dad is very technically minded and moonlit as the family mechanic for years, I don’t think anything stayed broken for long in our house. He is also an extremely good photographer and that was always a serious hobby of his while traveling. We were always visiting museums wherever we went too so I always had a sense of artwork as something that was beyond decorative or domestic.

Where are you currently based and what initially brought you there? Are there any aspects of this specific location or community that have inspired your work?

Me my wife and our two daughters moved up to Wilton in Connecticut a couple of years ago, part way through the pandemic. We wanted more space for the girls than we could have in Brooklyn and we wanted to be closer to my wife’s parents so the work from home thing freed up my wife to be a little further from the city. I think my work has remained on the same track since moving here but it’s been fun to convert one of the garages into a studio space and that’s made working easier in some ways.

Can you describe your studio space? What are some of the most crucial aspects of a studio that make it functional? Do any of these specific aspects directly affect your work?

We have a two car garage and I put a wall between them and refinished the floors, insulated the walls and put in gallery track lighting and some strip lights. The garage door is still fully functional so I put up a bug screen and a clear vinyl tarp with a zipper in the middle. It keeps bugs out and actually does a really good job of keeping out the hot air in summer and the cooler air in spring and fall. It means that a lot of the time I can keep the garage door open and look out on the woods. I love it, I can just step right out from painting and drink my coffee surrounded by greenery and some noisy chirping chipmunks.

What is a typical day like? If you don't have a typical day, what is an ideal day?

I don’t really have a typical day but Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the girls go to daycare so those are my studio days. I’m pretty flexible about how I spend that time depending on where I am in the process, deadlines and admin stuff etc. I’ve started a Thursday morning ritual of going to our local coffee shop and working on my laptop for an hour or so. That’s been an amazingly useful time to sit and focus on the aspects of being an artist that I find hard to do in the studio like writing artist statements, applying for opportunities, updating my website and writing newsletters etc.

What gets you in a creative groove or flow? Are snacks involved? ☺

I probably do snack quite often when I’m in the studio but it’s not the thing that gets me going. I usually have a ritual of procrastination which involves, tidying my space, organizing a little ,some house keeping stuff, emails that need sending etc and then when those are done which can take anywhere from 30 mins to and hour I mostly just get to work.

Is there anything that interrupts and stagnates your creative energy?

My kids!!!!! Although that’s not a problem when they are at school. We’re doing a lot of renovations on our home and I am the construction crew of 1 so I spend a lot of time between the studio and working on the house. It’s actually something I really enjoy so it doesn’t really stagnate my creative energy but it does take up a lot of time. Everything is always changing so I recognize that there will be times ahead where I get to devote much more time to the studio and the ideas keep piling up in my assortment of note books and post it notes.

How do you select materials? How long have you worked with this particular media or method?

I actually make work in various different mediums and materials but painting is the thing that ties it all together. There’s something ineffable about paint, it more than the sum of its parts, its colour, fluidity and texture. It’s the act of painting itself that is the ritual, the mixing and the application, it’s extremely meditative and physical. I work primarily in oils and fortunately I don’t have any reactions to the materials because I just love the way they feel going on the surface and the fluidity they achieve. I think there are mediums out there that allow acrylics to behave in a similar way but I’m not sure that the ritual and satisfaction would be the same.

Can you walk us through your overall process? How long has this approach been a part of your practice?

I changed up my practice quite a lot about 5 years ago before my first daughter was born and it’s just felt like my own thing ever since. I still feel like it has a lot of scope to evolve and it still excites me . I start with a frame, essentially a rectangle of some kind within the canvas/ surface and outline a space. Composition has always been an important aspect of what I make so it always seems helpful to set a few markers, a bit like marking out and laying the foundations for a building. From there I’ll usually start to draw out where the landscape will be and various objects that make up the interior. I often have ideas that I want to develop that I’ll sketch very loosely in my notebooks and they eventually make their way to a canvas at some point. I never have a blue print or a set of detailed plans, I like to see what comes up and respond intuitively. There’s a sort of commitment that comes from going in with this approach and I like that it often leads to a much more layered and unexpected painting. Sometimes I have to wrestle a painting a little to get it where I want but I think that’s part of the challenge and it sometimes leaves a trail of interesting marks and textures.

Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work over time? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?

Landscapes have been the most important ongoing theme in my work for the last 5 years or so. I think it stems from a love of the outdoors and the elevated sense of wonder and expansiveness that’s felt when looking out upon nature. It’s also about yearning for that experience and recognizing all the things that come between it. There’s definitely some of my own sense of anxiety about climate change and consumption that goes into the work too. As for imagery, it usually comes from a mix of sources, the objects and household things I paint are often from my own home, the landscapes are largely imagined but will occasionally be loosely informed by a photograph or a copy of National Geographic. I photograph plants and flowers in our back yard and also scour the internet for plants that fit my vision for the piece.

Do you pursue any collaborations, projects, or careers in addition to your studio practice? If so, can you tell us more about those projects, and are there connections between your studio practice and these endeavors?

I’m not pursuing any artistic projects or careers beyond the studio at the moment although there are a few things I’d like to work on in the future. I love animation, photography and film so there are a few ideas floating around that would be great collaborative projects. I love drawing on the creativity and expertise of others for some things but painting is more of a solo endeavor for me as a process. Renovating the house definitely draws on some of the skills I’ve acquired over the years as an artist, it’s helpful for the planning stage and there’s a hands-on, and problem solving mindset that all makers can relate to.

Have you had any epiphanies recently that have changed the course of your work or caused you to shift directions?

I think my last big epiphany came around 5 years ago when I started painting these mediated landscapes. It felt like I’d finally found a vehicle that could carry the ideas I wanted to explore and it allowed for a mix of painting techniques and applications. You never know when the next big one is coming but the work often surprises me in little and satisfying ways too.

As a result of the pandemic, many artists have experienced limited access to their studios or loss of exhibitions, income, or other opportunities. Has your way of working (or not working) shifted significantly during this time? Are there unexpected insights or particular challenges you’ve experienced?

The pandemic delayed a couple of opportunities for me but It hasn’t really affected my work or my practice. The thing that really changed everything was having kids, I’ve never had to manage my time in the way that I do now with a 2 and a 4 year old. The work I’m currently making started before the girls came along so I don’t think they’ve informed or changed it too much but at the same time there is probably a patience that I see in the work that wasn’t there before. Having kids teaches you a ton of things about yourself and they reprioritize some of your values, I think that shows up in the studio too.

Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music—that are important to you?

I’m reading The Overstory right now by Richard Powers and it’s just an incredible story, mostly about trees and the destruction of forests but also about the pathways of the characters whose lives they connect with. It feels so relevant to the ideas in my paintings although the level of knowledge and research in the book is incredible. I look at other contemporary landscape painters too, there are so many that I really love, Shara Hughes, Matthew Wong, Emma Webster, Annie Lapin. When I think of epic landscapes from the past the 17 century British painter John Martin always comes to mind and they are truly biblical in scale and content.

Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? What are the best exhibitions you’ve seen in recent memory and why do they stand out?

Matthew Wong at Karma in New York a couple of years ago was one of those shows that evoked a really powerful emotional response in me, something about the simplicity and honesty in the brushwork and they are so poetic and almost musical. There are so many contemporary painters whose work I love, besides those I’ve mentioned I love Dominique Fung’s paintings, my friend Sarah Slappey, Maxim Brandt and Eva Krause, Friedrich Kunath, Hayley Barker and Andrew Cranston

Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful?

The best advice that keeps coming through is just to keep working, nothing stays stuck if you keep moving even if you have to go in the wrong direction for a spell. The solutions and epiphanies always come through the doing and not the thinking.

What are you working on in the studio right now? What’s coming up next for you?

I just finished three large pieces on linen that I’m really happy with that are launched with The Tappan Collective on September 8th and I have a series of 10 smallish paintings on linen that are all on a blue - teal ground that I’m working on. I’ve got a bit of a back log of ideas at the moment so there’s no shortage of energy in the studio.

Anything else you would like to share?

Just a thank you to Maake Magazine for sharing my work and for all the people who support me and my career in all the different ways, big and small, it’s really appreciated.

To find out more about Mathew Tucker check out his Instagram and website.