New paintings for sale by Matthew Boyle. For inquiries, please email mattjboyle1(at)gmail.com.
All works are wired in the back for hanging, with the exception of the Sacred and Unanchored Geometry series. All works include a signed certificate of authenticity handmade by the artist.
- Embers in Bloom (Tel NY II)
2022, 36” x 36” acrylic on canvas, in handmade pine frame $900
I have created a new piece that is an updated version of the original Tel NY painting. This is “Embers in Bloom (Tel NY II)”, a 36″x36″ acrylic on canvas, with a hand-made pine frame that I built for the piece.
An octopus reflecting the image of a townhouse occupies a Japanese magnolia, observing / recoiling from embers in a geometric landscape on fire with color. I built the foreground over a backdrop of colorful geometry tuned to the composition, which hints at a celestial aperture – or the shadow of the octopus itself.
The image of the octopus, which features in a lot of my illustration work and paintings, brings to mind the ability to change color and shape, an intelligence that flows through the entire body and belies its place on the evolutionary tree, and serves as a juxtaposition up in a tree – how and why did it get there?
The magnolia is a nod to visits to the botanic gardens and certain residential blocks in Brooklyn, where once a year these magnificent violet pink petals bloom and fall to the sidewalks.
For me, the painting’s warm glow feels like a sunset at the edge of the world.
This painting has been on display at Five Deuces Gallery in Saint Petersburg, FL and is now back in my possession.
2. End of Blessings
2022, 36” x 36” acrylic on canvas $900 ($800 if unframed)
This piece is not currently framed, but I will be framing it soon in a pine or mahogany wood, like the previous two.
A tiger rests with a fresh kill amongst the palmettos in a post-apocalyptic Floridian landscape.
The horizon portrays a hurricane-ravaged coastline, as a waterfall of letters and paperwork cascades down the middle of the composition. I portrayed a land mixed with native and invasive/introduced species of flora and fauna. The palms are Florida’s own Sabal palm growing next to Bismark from Madagascar, introduced by man for ornament. The python is a nod to Florida’s own invasion as a result of our carelessness, and the tiger’s livestock tag hints at its escape from a Florida big cat farm, after humanity has disappeared. Life finds a way, and despite the ominous moonrise and property damage on the horizon line, I sought to create a color palette that conveys a sigh of relief, and to paint a peaceful moment in a radically shifted ecosystem.
3. The Portal at MIT
2022, 36″x36″ acrylic on canvas in handmade mahogany frame $900
As a former student of architecture, I have always had a great appreciation for Eero Saarinen’s MIT Chapel. I’m drawn to its simplicity, I consider it a magical moment in architecture and I try to visit every time I’m in Cambridge. A vision of the chapel came to mind while I was contemplating our own built landscape and what it might start to look like after we’re gone. In this psychedelic dreamscape, the flooded chapel’s brick walls blend with a tropical environment over the backdrop of multi-colored geometric structure. The tropical flora suggest a climate shift, with palmettos and philodendron flourishing north of the 42nd parallel in New England.
As Saarinen’s light-bathed metal shards rise from the altar to the oculus, a pool of tropical rainwater collects at the marble steps and falls towards the viewer. A rift in the sky hints at celestial and tidal changes.
Strange Terroir I
2022, 16” x 20” acrylic on canvas $500
Over a sharp geometric lattice sits an overgrown city street where ghost-like schools of squid drift by. Drawn to the hilly topography of California coastal cities, I wanted to hint at a vast sea level shift in which our architectural footprint converges with flora and fauna to create a wild new reef.
These works are both an exercise in my older style of overlaying narrative content on top of intensely colored geometric masking. Using tape, straight edges, and a compass I map out a background which eventually serves as a scaffold for living creatures and organic forms.
Strange Terroir II
2022, 16” x 20” acrylic on canvas $500
Maitake
2023, 14.5” x 16” 2023 acrylic on board $200
Maitakes (Grifola fondosa) or “Hen of the Woods” can be wild foraged, but most often you can find them in the grocery store or at farmer’s markets. They have a wonderful umami flavor, and are considered a choice edible.
Hand-built frame by the artist
Blue Oysters
2023, 14.5” x 16” acrylic on board $200
Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) are a common choice edible that can also be readily foraged in the wild. They are saprotrophic – they feed by decomposing dead wood, and can often be found fruiting in a cluster on beech trees. They come in many cultivars with different colors, including this blue varietal.
Hand-built frame by the artist
Chanterelle
2023, 14.5” x 16” acrylic on board $200
Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) are delicious fungi that can be foraged in the wild across the world. I find mine in the northeastern United States in the summer, and they are sweet, fruity and truffly when cooked. Beware the chanterelle’s look-alike, the jack-o-lantern mushroom, as they are poisonous!
Hand-built frame by the artist
Substrate
2023, 14.5” x 16” acrylic on board $200
In our ecosystem, death always opens doors to rebirth. Fungi are a crucial part of the decomposition process for all things expired, including ourselves. In this piece I’ve depicted a few of my favorite mushrooms (which do not feed on human flesh) in a spiritual nod to surrender. Oyster mushrooms, cordyceps, reishi and others adorn a tomb in which death begets life.
Hand-built frame by the artist
Tsunami
2022, 15” x 23” acrylic & oil on board $300
In a more subtle portrait of impending ecological doom, three pelicans appear to drift over a seaside downtown. Upon closer inspection, a great wave looms over the rooftops, poised to engulf the buildings and reclaim concrete into the sea.
Hand-built frame by the artist
Aquavista I
2009, 9.5” x 13.5” oil on board $300
Using oil paints to create bright contrasting tones, I made this more figurative illustration in response to news about the great pacific garbage patch.
Neighborhoods of old wooden houses are swept into ocean gyres, forming strange floating habitats for creatures of the sea. Rays of golden sunlight break through mountains of cumulus cloud in an almost holy embrace of light, as tendrils snake out of windows and fish congregate beneath.
Hand-built frame by the artist
Aquavista II
2009, 10” x 11” oil on board $200
An old city skyline becomes a submerged reef in this post-flood companion to Aquavista I. The water column os sparkling with microorganisms and plastic glitter, and tentacles twist and turn out of building windows.
Hand-built frame by the artist
Sacred and Unanchored Geometries XIX
2022, 7” x 9.5” mixed media on board, with custom mat sized for an 11”x14” frame $200
In my series “Sacred and Unanchored Geometries” I am exploring constellations of architectural archetypes, creating a visual vocabulary of elements and arranging them into tiny journeys that appear celestial and dream-like. To accomplish this I draw and collage a large collection of tiny architectural symbols (a la John Hejduk) on isometric graph paper. These become constellations in the foreground, in a relationship with one another and a celestial moon in red or blue. All paintings for sale in this series include a custom cut mat sized for an 11″ x 14″ frame (frame not included).
Humans occupy some of the spaces, which are sometimes connected via pathways and folding planes. These small journeys seem to move through time and memory, as they pay homage to the “perfect” forms we gather into our own spaces.
Sacred and Unanchored Geometries XVII
2022, 7” x 9.5” mixed media on board, with custom mat board sized for an 11”x14” frame $200
Sacred and Unanchored Geometries XVI
2022, 7” x 9.5” mixed media on board, with custom mat board sized for an 11”x14” frame $200
Sacred and Unanchored Geometries XV
2022, 7” x 9.5” mixed media on board, with custom mat board sized for an 11”x14” frame $200
Sacred and Unanchored Geometries XIII
2022, 7” x 9.5” mixed media on board, with custom mat board sized for an 11”x14” frame $200
Sacred and Unanchored Geometries XII
2022, 7” x 9.5” mixed media on board, with custom mat board sized for an 11”x14” frame $200
Sacred and Unanchored Geometries XI
2022, 7” x 9.5” mixed media on board, with custom mat board sized for an 11”x14” frame $200
