Danny Matthys (1947)
Belgium
Biography :
"Danny (Daniël) Matthys is a Belgian artist, born in Zottegem in 1947. He is a painter, draughtsman, sculptor, creator of assemblages, collages and tapestries, as well as a photographer. He trained as a draughtsman-designer at the Ghent Textile and Plastic Institute, in monumental art at Sint-Lucas in Ghent and in sculpture at the Ghent Academy. He works with a wide variety of materials. Among other things, he cuts up his own works to make photo mosaics, in which he sometimes also incorporates drawings and painted pieces. In 1974, he became an art teacher at the Ghent Municipal Institute of Secondary Art, and in 1980 at the Ghent Academy. He spent a year and a half in Australia in 1990-1991, a period that can be considered a turning point in the artist's life and work. Several important mosaics were created in the following years, including in his own small castle residence in Gentbrugge and in a number of private homes. The stylized human figure often appears in these works. The human form is also to be found in many of the concrete torsos he cast in 1994. In 1999, a hundred male busts were placed in a staggered arrangement on the façade of the S.M.A.K. warehouse in Ghent. From the press: "Recent works show that D.M. is not a painter, but a compiler of images. He draws them from the world around him and from his own work. They are transformed and immediately restored in a new context and a new form" (R. Coenjaerts, 2001) and "D.M.'s work encompasses very different media such as painting, photography and video, assemblages, sculptures and installations. D.M. was one of the pioneers in Belgium in the late 1960s to experiment with new media, and his work takes the form of photographic series, Polaroid structures and video installations. Structures often take precedence over aesthetic forms, so that the viewer becomes aware of the complexity of the gaze. At the same time, his images are reminiscent of mosaics, and refer to the abundance of images and the possibility of image manipulation in today's visual culture." (2010) He exhibited at the S.M.A.K. in Ghent in 1999, and at the MuHKA in Antwerp in 2004 and 2006. His work can be found in the Flemish Community collection, among others. He is mentioned in BAS II and Deux siècles de signatures d'artistes belges. (piron)"
(Source, website, Belgian Art Gallery)