Matthew John Atkinson

Since graduating, Atkinson’s paintings have evolved from ethereal and nostalgic hinterlands to eerily constructed and ambiguous paintings, exploring the moral and finite reality that humans have formed. His paintings challenge the viewer to reflect upon and enter into a dialogue concerning their universal vulnerability and empathy: rather than to find ways to deflect and postpone.Atkinson is a painter whose work has an unsettling power allied to a restless use of painterly skill. Where his work has traces of Richter, Polke and Doig he works with a fusion of techniques to produce works by turns poignant, calculating, hopeful and otherworldly.