Chapter House Lane presents Matt Arbuckle’s layered abstract paintings at 136 Johnson Street from 13 November – 7 December. This is the fifth and final show to be held in our temporary Collingwood space, capping off a fine series of exhibitions.

Matt Arbuckle is a painter who takes photographs. Photos are nowhere to be seen in his heavy brush strokes and lashes of colour, but they are at the core of the work. Shooting an interesting shape, line, shopfront or window each day with his grandfather’s old Voigtländer camera, the photographs are pinned up in his studio and deconstructed into grids and frames, strong gestures and layered perspectives.

 Each artwork plays with the formal elements of painting – marks, colours and space. Some works distort a viewer’s perception of foreground and background space, making it seem as though you could step into the painting. Others reveal an obvious history of the marks made, showing how the work was constructed. This is a playful study of painting, composition and form.

Matt Arbuckle is a New Zealand native who now lives in Melbourne after a two-year stint in Berlin. Throughout his career Arbuckle has held several solo and group exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia and overseas. See more from the artist here.