Matthew Ritchie

Biography of Matthew Ritchie

Few artists work in the scope and ambition of British-born artist Matthew Ritchie. His encyclopedic artist project could be said to represent the entire universe and the structures of knowledge and belief with which we attempt to understand and perceive it. In many ways this project is an investigation into his own imagination and its limitations, but it is also a mark of this artist's unrestrained curiosity and learning that he is able to encompass so much.

 

Although mainly seen as a painter, Matthew Ritchie uses drawing substantially in his art practice, scanning his works on paper into a computer so that he can alter and expand them. This technique also allows the artist to reshape his drawings into sculptures and installations. His charged, even unstable images seem in a persistent process of dynamic alteration—a stance that is mirrored in the changing nature of the universe and its evolutionary forms.

 

Delving into art, philosophy, religion, and scientific narratives, Matthew Ritchie has for a long time been exploring the possibilities offered by interactive art as well as New Media. Through his research he has developed a mythical narrative of his own, communicating via art spaces and installations to the world and the World Wide Web. Ritchie often collaborates with specialists in divergent fields, such as online developers, scientists and musicians and architects to realize a project.

 

Born in 1964, Matthew Ritchie graduated from Camberwell School of Art before moving to Boston to study further. Now based in New York City, Ritchie is an artist of international repute and has had solo shows around the world. His work has been exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami and the The Guggenheim in New York. He also featured prominently in the 1997 Whitney Biennial and the 2002 Sydney Biennial.

Available Works: 3