For The Launch of Viktor Wynd Fine Art Ltd, to be generously lubricated by Hendrick's Gin, Silas Wynd, Chelsea Zaharczuk & Suzette Field are delighted to present new work by Matthew Killick.

Matthew Killick makes hyper-detailed paintings that are influenced by his explorations underwater. He is a keen wreck diver, and spends a lot of his time in the English Chanxnel amongst the multitude of ship carcasses that are spread all over the sea bed below one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. It is a dark, dangerous place, often with little or no light, and barely any visibility. Within the narrow beam of torch light, he crawls along the sea floor, and studies up close the multitudes of life forms that are drawn to these unnatural reefs. Perhaps due to the intense up-close focus that this type of diving requires, the work is often reminiscent of electron microscope photography, and biological forms appear that are cell-like or bacterial. Although the works have the feeling that they are derived from careful study of organisms, they are in fact entirely fabricated.

"Painting and diving are similar activities for me. Both rely on intense concentration and focus, and there is a sense of exploration in both that excites me. When I dive in low visibility conditions, I have a very intimate connection to the things I see. My work gravitated to that type of imagery in a natural way. I didn't decide to make works that were based on my underwater experiences, it just happened on its own. Since I was young, I had heart palpatations, and during my teen years I learnt how to control them. I put this to use now that I dive, by slowing my heart rate down. This helps conserve air, but also puts me into a focussed and meditative state. It is very similar to the state of mind I experience when painting."

The artist was moved by the beautiful films of Jean Painlevé, a pioneer of nature cinematography. Pre-dating Cousteau, his black and white short films are poetic visions of a microscopic underwater world. Painlevé was a great source of inspiration for many surrealist artists such as Buñuel and Breton. Killick refers to the production of his works as being ‘automatic painting’, whereby images are not derived from photographs, but from fragments of memory combined with imagination.

Since graduading from Mullion School of Art, Matthew Killick has been a practicing artist and his work is held in numerous collections world wide.

Works from this series have recently been the subject of solo shows at Artdepoo Estonia (Tallinn), & Working Rooms E8,
with works being bought for the collections of Brian Adams, Roland Moret, Richard Ducker & Silas Wynd.