Matt Wong

Artist statement: My spin on surrealism and dadaism is inspired by the landscapes from 3D adventure games from my childhood such as Super Mario 64, Psychonauts, and Banjo Kazooie. I also borrow textures and shapes that I find compelling in contemporary art and architecture. There are two types of feelings I strive to invoke in a viewer. Either a sense of sincere and beautiful gloom, usually these works involve some portion of a person to portray human emotion, or a feeling of excitement that comes from arriving in a new place with a driving internal force to explore. I paint to create situations that excite me. Taking little parts from art and photography and combining them into something completely different is enthralling to me. I enjoy the problem-solving aspect of building a composition with a strong form and a complementary colour palette. Challenging myself keeps me happy and motivated and improving my painting technique and artistic intuition is the best way I know how to do that. Bio: Matt Wong was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. While studying computer engineering at McMaster University an old love of sketching pop culture portraits and and silly characters resurfaced. While on a software development internship in Calgary, which was a lonely period for him, Matt filled most of his free time in his mostly empty apartment sketching and eventually teaching himself how to paint. Over time, he dabbled in replicating abstract doodles taken from his lecture notes onto canvas. From there his specific style of dadaism, surrealism, and cubism began to flourish. Currently, he works as a software developer in Calgary. He continues to paint in oil and acrylic, striving to evolve a unique style.