STATEMENT OF WORK

My name is Matthew Clarke I live in South West Victoria(at the end of the Great Ocean Road) in Australia. I am an artist with an intellectual disability and I live with mental illness. I have been drawing ever since I can remember and I have been painting for 18 years. My work is influenced and inspired by the people around me(see portraits). I have long running themes of portraits, wallabies(kangaroos), wind farms, landscapes and cityscapes.

My wallabies are made out of three quarters of an inch ply  wood. I draw the works, my dad/prime carer cuts them out of ply wood, makes a slot in the back that the tails fit into turning them into 3D and then I paint them.  

I draw everyday(see my instagram account) and I am painting weekly.I post most days on instagram.  I like to travel, see art and meet other artists. I travel with my dad/prime carer and often with my sister as well or another carer. I think my most enjoyable project was painting a street mural in Adelaide, South Australia (see film) or my first mini exhibition within the Vocational Education student exhibition in 2006(after only a few months at a main stream art school). 

I am proud to be a local artist in Warrnambool, a town of 32,000 people. 

I am also proud to be an Australian artist painting Australian themes and my Australian heros.  I am proud to be in the 2021 Archibald prize ( Australia's leading art prize) .It is exciting having my work in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and been choosen out of 938. Seeing myself as a national artist as well as a local artist sits well with me and I would like to have an exhibition in New York.   

I have been described by others as a naive artist with firey brush strokes. I think I was destined to be an artist with or without disability. 

 instagram @matthewclarke86_art