Matthew Radford, Untitled Oil on Linen

Radford's compulsion to record the scale and pace of urban life is both vibrant and sombre - with an innovative use of color and paint - he first paints people's silhouettes - and moves over the canvases in huge swathes to 'wipe away' any individual identities within the masses. This particular work of art depicts a bar scene.
 
For it is the mystery and complexity of urban life that fascinates Radford, and pulses throughout his paintings - acting as a metaphor for the shifting sands of one's lifetime. Many of Radford's recent works tread a thin line between the figurative and abstraction, evoking a darkness where the non-subject areas of a London scene spell both a paradoxical void and spatial freedom, and the subjects are swathed in veils. Perhaps Radford presents these more abstract images as gateways for seeing other things - the duality of the spiritual world and physical world which he believes can never be experienced separately. Like stills from a film noir, his images are alluring but shrouded in mystery. Having been fascinated with crowds since childhood, Radford's enigmatic paintings and monotypes are a set in his city - a 'deep pool of individual solitudes' - an anonymous passage of personal exploration through social constraint.
 
Acquired by both institutions and private collectors alike, Matthew Radford's work continues to draw attention from a captivated audience, many of whom can identify with the paradoxical nature of modern day city life. Matthew Radford has exhibited widely in the United Kingdom and has also had solo shows in Los Angeles, New York, California, and Germany. His work is in several important collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Public Library and Corporate Collections. The artist has also held teaching posts at the Slade School of Art, New York Studio School, and Camberwell Art School.
 
BIOGRAPHY 1953 Born in London 1971-1972 St Albans School of Art 1972-1975 Camberwell School of Art, London 1981-1984 Taught at Camberwell School of Art, London 1985-1986 Taught at The Drawing Centre, New York 1989-1993 Taught at the New York Studio School 2000 Visiting lecturer at the Slade School of Art, London.