The Venal Muse Mat Collishaw

New art gallery walsall also staged the uk premier of collishaw s zoetrope.

The venal muse mat collishaw.

Mat collishaw the venal muse 2012. On close inspection their fine petals have a flesh like appearance with anthropomorphic scars and sores pitting the skin. Matthew mat collishaw honfrps born 1966 is an english artist based in london. An important member of the young british artists mat collishaw creates work that confronts issues of moral ambiguity with formally stunning and alluring imagery.

Often creating a dialogue with past masters to explore humanity s dark side collishaw s seemingly simple but actually complex works are often based on references from myth. Case the venal muse 2012. Dialogues is also the artist s first solo exhibition in spain and offers an insight into his dark and compelling world through seminal works and rarely seen pieces including works from fundació sorigué s own collection. Ideas that deal with death destruction and decay become hypnotic and compelling.

About mat collishaw s the end of innocence mat collishaw has never shied away from difficult or challenging subject matter. Mat collishaw wall insecticide series 2006 2011. He participated in freeze 1988 and since his first solo exhibition in 1990 has exhibited widely internationally. The venal muse series mat collishaw request image.

They are reflections on the depraved state of modern media saturated culture and the spectre of genetic manipulation. These works allude to charles baudelaire s 1857 controversial volume of poetry les fleurs du mal the flowers of evil which dealt with such themes as eroticism death and lost innocence. Historical classification 2010s. Venal muse 9 2012.

Mat collishaw is a key figure in the important generation of british artists who emerged from goldsmith s college in the late 1980s. These sculptures pay tribute to baudelaire s les fleurs du mal a book of poetry exploring themes of decadence and eroticism. Coupling references to art history literature and the victorian era with modern imaging technology the artist renders powerful.