Matt Dyer | Featured Artist

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Matt Dyer, “Two Small Towns,” 2024

acrylic and coloured pencil on canvas, 44 x 44 x 1.5 ″ (courtesy of the Gallery)

I paint to explore. I create art to dissect and stay curious. Taking inspiration from our world as a dynamic whole—people, relationships, communities, time, environment and the awkward and non-glorious ways in which we struggle—navigates me through it. I feel the most telling parts of life are found in the ordinary. I think the underwhelming is where the beauty of our world can be most easily seen. I think this is where nature is happiest and where we, as people, are at our most honest, awkward and vulnerable. As a painter, I start from this point. Using colour, layers, space and line to press up against the mundane is how I tell a story, paying respect to the ordinary and recognizing it as something special and beautiful. I formally studied art in Victoria, BC, San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA and Honolulu, HI. These locations, and the numerous people that have contributed and helped me along the way, have influenced the art that I create today. Every place that I have called home has had its own colour palette, style and influence, for which I am greatly appreciative. In addition to painting, I also create 2D digital art and photography as part of my process. As an artist dedicated to learning and growing, I look towards the artists of the past and present for inspiration. Artists whose work in abstraction, figurative and landscape intertwine—like Richard Deibenkorn, Fritz Scholder, Derrick Adams and David Hockney— are those I revisit.