"Hinterlands" exhibition at Red Head Gallery - April 26th to May 20th 2023

Where did the time go? Suddenly I have a new exhibition at Red Head Gallery, in the 401 Richmond building in Toronto. The show runs from April 26th to May 20th. There will be an opening reception on Friday May 5th, 5-8pm. Here is the official art blurb:

“From virtual bird’s eye vantage points above his hometown of Toronto, Mathew Borrett renders a variety of improbable visions of the city, revisiting rich thematic territory. With a science-fiction sensibility and a touch of the surreal, the artist reorients the city’s most familiar landmarks both spatially and temporally. Some of the works depict over-the-top manifestations of climate change, which for the artist are meditations on human resilience through the churning of time. Borrett dwells often on the impermanence of civilizations, and thinks about the previous ice-age, not that long past, when a vast kilometer-thick sheet of ice weighed upon the region where he now resides.”

"A Break In The Clouds", solo exhibition at Red Head Gallery

Opening at Red Head Gallery on September 22nd, ending October 16th.

401 Richmond Street West, Toronto.

Reception: Saturday September 25, 2 - 5 PM

(outdoors in front of the building due to gathering restrictions)

“Mathew Borrett builds a playful series of loosely themed worlds. Inspiration for these places range from a summer trip to Nova Scotia, playing Minecraft with his nephew, and ideas from 80's science fiction novels. The work continues Borrett's exploration of vast landscapes crafted with densely intricate detail and sparse fragments of narrative.”

“Ynys Sfferau”, 2021

Out of the Clouds

It’s been awhile since I posted anything new in here. Here’s a new render I made - still pretty much playing with the same elements I’ve been using for a few years, mixed into something new like a trusty Lego set. I could generate endless variations, though perhaps it’s time to add some new pieces to the kit. Rendered in Clarisse IFX with some post in photoshop.

Recent-ish Renders - Porting Hypernurnia into Clarisse IFX

Sometimes a piece of software comes along which literally speeds up your workflow by a factor of ten or more. So it is with Clarisse IFX, a layout and rendering tool that excels at assembling large complex scenes. I had been doing everything in Modo, which is a great asset creation tool, and while it can handle complex scenes, Clarisse is built specifically for that task. So it was a no-brainer to take my whole modo set-up for the Hypernurnia series into Clarisse. The following images are some early results.

"Hiding Places" - New work at Red Head Gallery, Oct 31 to Nov 24

Somehow, after an instense year when lots of “life happened” + juggling other commitments, I’ve pulled together a new exhibition. I’m putting it on the wall today, though there may be a couple of straggler pieces going up before the opening reception on Nov 8th, (6-9pm). Such is life. The work picks up where I left off a dozen years ago with my room drawings.
More info here. Facebook event page here.

“Lost in Bed #1”, pigment print, 43” x48”, 2018

“Somnambulant Living Room”, pigment print, 23” x 30”, 2018

Biidaaban

Very honoured to have worked on the environments for this project by film maker Lisa Jackson, with Jam3 and the Nation Film Board of Canada. It will be shown for the first time next week at the Tribeca Film Festival Immersive program in New York. The world we created is partly an adaptation of my Hypnagogic City piece, set in a future Nathan Phillips Square.

Article on the CBC here, and Engadget

Antique Streetlight by the Creek

A quick image rendered between gigs, a spinoff from Hypnagogic City.

Detail from Hypnagogic City #2

This is from the second iteration of Hypnagogic City, which will be on the gallery wall just in time for the opening reception on March 9th. It's been a big technical challenge getting these images rendered on time! 

"Hypnagogic City", New Exhibition at Red Head Gallery this March

My new exhibition this March at Red Head Gallery in Toronto features a follow-up piece to "Future Toronto?"  The show runs from March 1st to the 25th.

"Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep. Mental phenomena that occur during this "threshold consciousness" phase include lucid thought, lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.
- Wikipedia

Starting with a publicly available digital model of Toronto, Mathew Borrett has crafted a haunting tableau of the city's civic center as might exist in a parallel universe. We glimpse a present day through a new lense: one constructed of an accretion of imagined structures and the decay of old ones. The prevalent theme is the relationship between the built environment and nature. Taking a maximalist approach, the viewer is presented with a hyper-detailed scene that invites repeated exploration."

The image below is a detail from "Hypnagogic CIty".

"Superhabitable Planet" for New Scientist Magazine

A fun illustration job was this one for New Scientist magazine recently, . It's about the possible existence of nearby planets like Earth, but larger, more stable, and more lush. It was a challenging thing to convey succinctly. I ended up going with lots of detail, as per usual.

LINK

"City of Dreams" group show at First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto

I'm late putting up notice here about a group show called "City of Dreams". Three large prints from my Hypernurnia exhibition are there, one of which is out in the lobby of the building. The show is in the First Canadian Place Gallery in the Toronto financial district until the end of April. Gallery hours are 11am to 2:30pm Mon-Fri. 

More Hypernurnia

I've had extra time to play with my Hypernurnia set lately, which has led to a steady stream of new snippets on my Instagram. I recently hit the 10k follower mark, thanks to Instagram featuring me on their list of Suggested Users!  :)

At work I used to take quick modelling breaks and crank out a little building or some random structure. Usually I'd email it to myself and then dive back into work and often forget all about it. So I spent some time rounding up those old models, and came across a whole set of trees I also forgotten about. I like how they lend a different sense of scale than is found in most of images.

More Hypernurnia Variations

Future Toronto Prints Available

You can order one through my store page.

Time-Lapse Hypernurnia Videos

I recorded several hours of progress on the Hypernurnia series. I sped up the footage ten times and displayed it at the show on a loop. Below is a portion of it in three parts.

"Future Toronto?" Winter Version Nears Completion

I'd been hoping to have this ready last year but technical difficulties prevented it. These have finally been resolved and I'm putting the final touches on it now. Limited edition prints will be ready to ship by December. If you'd like to order one now, please go to my store page. Prints will also be available in the Spacing store in downtown Toronto.

The original version had but one human visible, almost too small to see. When I started on the winter version, the scene looked really barren and lifeless without all the greenery, even with lights in the windows. I decided to add a lot more activity in this version. The fallen CN tower provides good shelter for a hockey game.

Mathew Borrett at Art Toronto 2015

Below is a large detail from Ancient Mars, a 42"x96" print which was on display at Art Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre.

Detail from "Polar Dunes"

HyperNurnia is on the wall at The Red Head Gallery

We hung the show last night, just in time for opening day. If you're in Toronto, go see it at The Red Head Gallery, 401 Richmond St West.

The opening reception is Friday evening, 6-9pm.

HyperNurnia - An Exhibition of New Work by Mathew Borrett

I'm fighting against time and a cramping hand to finish up three large pieces that will be on display at The Red Head Gallery in Toronto from Oct 7th to 31st.

The opening night party is on Friday, October 9th, from 6pm to 9pm. Facebook event page here.

Below is a large detail from "Fever Dream City", which is 96" x 42":