Featured Artist: Tom Matthews: Ground Floor Gallery

Phasing

Tom Matthews' work investigates how measured ways of understanding and representing space can connect with the more qualitative ways in which we experience them. Explored through an evolving body of work, Phasing charts the evolution of Matthews' spatial representation, from studies of traceable locations to objects taken out of their context. This culminates in abstracted mappings of textures and materials. Throughout these works he demonstrates a commitment to space, texture and contrast, allowing his process of thought and drafting to be visible in each etching.

Hill Street II 1:100 and Phoenix Road 1:100 draw heavily on Matthews' architectural background, fusing deep research and analysis of pedestrian spaces in and around Glasgow's inner-city motorway with an exploration of movement and weight.

His most recent works, Offset Seven, Delay Nine, and Phase Fifteen, mark a continuation of these ideas with less of a representational focus. Abstracted one-to-one mappings of textures from his daily surroundings, with a focus on rhythm and space, speak to more qualitative remembering of place. Borrowing titles from musical technology, these three works represent an introspective reflection on the artist's sensory experience, with a tendency towards rhythm and tonal dynamics.

Tom Matthews is an artist and designer originally from North-East England, living and working in Glasgow. He is a graduate of Sheffield School of Architecture and has experience working as a designer between the intersections of architecture, visual design and art. As a printmaker, he has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Show, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, The Alchemy Experiment, and a joint show, 'Scar Tissue', with photographer Gaston Welisch as part of the 2023 Archifringe Festival.