Balthazar Mattar
Balthazar Mattar is a multimedia London based artist, who explores how the power attributed to the written word is both exposed and subverted when juxtaposed with the imagery of free flowing colour and form. When first looking at his work, the text jumps forward and invites us to grasp what the picture means. Yet each work mirrors a different idea, so where is the artist's view? By showing how words dominate our attention, these works demonstrate how easily words can also screen us from nuance, represented by the picture's looser aspects. He has participated in art fairs in London, Manchester, Munich and Copenhagen and had three solo exhibitions in London.
A rich and complex world reduced to a convoluted patchwork of philosophy, poetry and political ideas, where opinions compete for precedence. A musician as well as a visual artist, Balthazar uses the typewriter as an instrument to create text.
Through a process of semi-automatic writing sessions, he immerses himself in the sound worlds of musicians as varied as Olivier Messiaen and Anthony Braxton, tapping in rhythm to the music. Once the graphic element is complete he picks up the paint brush to create figures and colours, using ink and watercolour in opposition to the machine made marks.
If Balthazar has one ambition in art it is to create something that is open to all. As such, his elaborate use of language is done with humour and cynicism. He wants us above all to simply enjoy.
