Mathew Cerletty

Matthew Cerletty’s Untitled reconsiders the figure as an abstracted strategy of design. Set on a cold ground, his torso is centred as an obsessional focus of concentration. Rendered with painterly impasto, his shirt becomes a slacker study of illusionary space: its simplified cartoon form balancing between graphic flatness and 3D perspective, the stylised shadow alluding to sculptural form reinforces the planar surface. The addition of the hands converts Cerletty’s painting from compositional study to relational subject, infusing traditional line, shape, and tone with dandyish and charismatic personality.

Mathew Cerletty’s work ranges from accutely rendered realist paintings and drawings to text based work distilling images of lifestyle ideals. Throughout his practice Cerletty defines the rules of attraction, using the formal qualities of painting to explore the principles of beauty and fixation. In N, traditional imagery is exchanged for a simple letter: a person’s initial, empty logo, generic mark, or graphic design. Set on a textured white ground, the letter’s painterly domination commands with its force of expression and charismatic humour. Rendered in envy-green and adorned with anthropomorphic eyes, N assumes centre of attention as typeface of sheer vanity.