Matthew Dardart

My time at the Muse has so far been a positive and progressive experience. Everyone who works here at the gallery have been very welcoming to me, generously offering opportunities to broaden my experience in the art world and trusting me with access to their space whenever I need it. I am grateful to have been given an opportunity like this in such a relaxed and freeing environment.

The residency kicked off with an exhibition in January showcasing art works from all four residents. This created a deadline and gave me the drive to make something new to present in the show, a pressure I have missed since leaving university. The private view night was very special with friends, family and strangers coming to the gallery on a cold January night to show their support and indulge in good chat, great sights, and free drinks. It’s hard to believe three months has passed since then, but you know what they say, time flies when you’re painting pictures of Simon Cowell.

I am currently working on two ideas for sculptures to finish before the end of the residency and hopefully exhibit at our group show in June. One, a large free-standing sculpture resembling a handstand, is being made, or rather, growing in a separate space from the gallery as the intuitive process I try to follow makes these kind of works particularly messy. This process is heavily material driven and so will, hopefully, end up consisting of a wide range of detritus and residues.

And two, a triptych of crucifix-esque reliefs depicting a silhouetted representation of the three businessmen of the apocalypse British icons/old white men, painted onto a number of panels made up from chicken wire, hessian scrim and bonding plaster. Painting and relief making is not part of my usual practice but being given a space at the Muse has allowed me to consider and experiment with alternative methods of making. One of the first things I noticed when joining the studio was the vast scale of the wall space surrounding it. This then led me to consider how a space like that could possibly be filled with a much larger scale relief than I had previously ever imagined doing. I am now able to directly act upon this curiosity due to the open-mind the gallery provides to its residence – as well as the ‘all clear ’ for the excessive wall nailing.

All in all, my time here at the gallery has been fun! And I’m lucky enough to be able to experience all this in such a freeing and community positive space. Things are starting to happen now in the studios and I’m looking forward to seeing how they progress over the final three months of the residency.

Thank you to the Muse Gallery for having me.

We gathered early on Portobello Road. What was different this time was that we visited open studios, we brought Portobello Radio.

The visits to the studios along the way can be heard on the radio station, which was a very interesting experience. Therefore, for friends who cannot join us, please tune in to our program on @muse_at_269 or our podcast

We departed at 11 am and stopped at three studios, which were ACAVA Studios, The Bomb Factory, and Gallery 46.

We met many professional artists and greatly enjoyed watching them create in their unique studios. It’s interesting how you can learn about a person’s personality and style through their workspace.

There will be more interview content to come, and we look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with them. If you would like to join our art studio tour in the future, don’t forget to follow our bus Instagram account @tga_artbus