Matthew de Moiser's latest series of two-dimensional works conflate the language of hard-edged abstraction and the formal qualities of modernist architecture with a quintessentially suburban, Australian 'feel'.
Although they look like paintings, upon closer inspection these painstakingly meticulous works are actually assemblages made from finely cut laminate – a common plastic veneer found in suburban homes throughout Australia.
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Service stations, backyard swimming pools and overpasses are reduced to fundamental colours, shapes and form, creating vibrant multi-coloured impressions of the Australian suburban condition. Like his earlier abstract sculptural work made from Ikea furniture parts, the laminate paintings as Matthew calls them are an escape – a search for some sort of formal abstraction that transcends the austere reality of the everyday.
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Born in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs, Matthew’s grandparents originally migrated to Geelong as Estonian refugees where they built their first home out of re-used packing crates. In many ways this history still influences his practice today and is apparent in his philosophical enquiry and appropriation and re-use of materials. Although he has been showing regularly in Sydney, this is the first time the laminate paintings have been exhibited as a collection in Melbourne and bare evidence of the artist’s recent move from the eastern suburbs to Melbourne’s north.
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Exhibition runs 2-23 March at Anita Traverso Gallery, 7 Albert Street, Richmond, VIC