About

Matthew de Moiser is a Melbourne based artist recognised for his use of everyday objects, mediums and materials as the basis for new works. His work can be viewed as a reconciliation of sorts between Howard Arkley's fetishisation of the suburbs and Robin Boyd's contempt for them.

Born in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs in the 1970's, his grandparents originally migrated to Geelong in 1952 as Estonian refugees and built their first home with packing crates from the Ford factory where they worked. The south eastern suburban fringe of Melbourne where his parents later settled would become synonymous with stereotypical Australian suburbia after the the TV soap Neighbours was filmed there.

In many ways, his art practice is influenced by this history, engaging directly with issues relating to globalisation, popular culture and notions of home.

His 'laminate painting' series are actually assemblages crafted from finely cut coloured laminex which he uses to build "spare yet arresting images of Australian suburbia. In his hands, banal corners - service stations, overpasses and a set of wheels - become things of beauty."1 Able to be viewed as either representations of real places or two dimensional abstractions, they also draw a clear link to his earlier sculptural work made from Ikea furniture parts. His 'Home Sweet Home' series utilise long stitch embroidery - a somewhat dated but uniquely Australian form of tapestry - as a way of exploring housing archetypes and by extension our collective aspirations and ideals about home and who we are".

Represented by Flinders Street Gallery in Surrey Hills (Sydney), his work is included in major public and private collections and has been selected for numerous awards and prizes.

1. Lobley, K. (2011, July 16-17). Spectrum. The Sydney Morning Herald, pp. 14.