Matthew Richie

I first heard about Mathew Richie last year from a friend of mine and although I admired his work I never really did extensive research until. As I was painting the final for this class, Lia had recommended me to look up Mathew Richie for inspiration. I instantly connected to his pieces because he was able to create so much depth and manipulate space in his work through his composition. 

Mathew Richie was born in London, England in 1964 but currently lives in New York. He received his BFA from Camberwell School of Art in London and later attended Boston University. Ritchie is such a diverse artist and is not just a painter but also creates works on paper, prints, light-box drawings, floor-to-wall installations, freestanding sculpture, websites, and short stories.

 His works mainly pertain to outer space, quantum mechanics and the vastness of the universe. In his works he tests the boundaries of representation through his abstracted lines. He first started his investigation of the cosmos in the 90’s and while his works started off as a 2-dimensional piece, they slowly evolved into 3-dimensional paintings. He began doing wall murals that would seem to carry on endlessly and incorporate sculpture with his paintings. The sculptural aspect of his installations mimics the line work of his paintings and allowed the painting to come off the wall. It invites you into his work and allows you to feel like the painting is almost coming out at you. His pieces are so powerful not only because of its size but also because he is able to express a concept that is not tangible. Quantum physics is a theory of things not visible to the eye and a concept that many people do not understand but Richie is able to bring it to life and interact with his viewers. Richie's goal is not to explain how light travels, or how wave particles work, but also to show his viewers what the world is. He wants to slow things down so people can see how the world would look if you could see wave particles, etc. In one of his interviews he says, "It is not about traditional modes of representation. For me, making art is a way to examine the limits of perception."