{"title":"'Picnic at Black and White Mountain' | Matthew Cheyne","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e17 November - 19 December 2026\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"_Hlk213678688\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003eMatthew Cheyne is a Queensland based artist, working in oil painting, drawing and sculpture. He graduated from the Queensland College of Art in 2001, having also studied film and literature.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk213678688;\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"_Hlk78460495\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003eCheyne's work is part oil painting, part hyper-colour drawing. Subjects as diverse as volcanoes, street hawkers and looters are rendered with the same dark humour. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk213678688;\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"_Hlk213678886\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003eThough a figurative painter at heart, his subjects inhabit deliciously tonal, abstracted backgrounds, inviting the viewer to flesh out the scene, also due in part to his colour blindness. \u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eHis paintings observe people, scenarios, and the built environment.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk213678886;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003eIn embracing a more intuitive approach, Cheyne allows his own work to surprise him. \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“It’s that hum between the lines that I’m always aiming for. It’s listening to the devil on my shoulder who’s telling me, go ahead, mess with it\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk213678886;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003eThe vibrant colours are often set in tension with the subject matter. Volcanoes, a recurring subject that Cheyne refers to as \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“nature’s middle-finger to bucolic landscape painting”\u003c\/i\u003e, are nevertheless dealt with in innocuous candy pinks or transformed by serene indigo. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003eAn optimism that infuses even the darkest subject matter is becoming a hallmark of his work. The illegal street hawkers Cheyne shared turf with while working en plein air in France are lavished with a kind of urban neon camouflage. Looters and hooded gangs inhabit dripping ice cream abstractions. \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“A lot of the time the hooded figures are more representative of an aspect of my personality, or that of someone close to me. They are an attitude. They’re emblematic rather than representational.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"_Hlk213679409\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003e“I want to make work that presses forward, without sentimentality, but which invites people in and pulls them forward too.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk213679409;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003e Cheyne’s painting is full of that urgency, fuelled by the artist’s need for reinvention.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"_Hlk78460429\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003eNow based in Queensland, Cheyne spent a number of years much living in Germany and France with regular exhibitions in Cologne, Berlin and Luxembourg\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca name=\"_Hlk78458594\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk78460429;\"\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003e. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk78458594;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bookmark: _Hlk78460429;\"\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003eIn Australia, his work has been shown at Casula Powerhouse in Sydney and at the Australian National Archives in Canberra, as well as with numerous commercial and public galleries. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;\"\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003eHis work is held in collections in Australia and overseas. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Cambria',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/mitchellfineartgallery.com\/collections\/matthew-cheyne\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Matthew Cheyne Artist at Mitchell Fine Art\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: 'Optima\\,BoldItalic'; color: #1f1a17; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;\"\u003eVIEW MORE MATTHEW CHEYNE WORKS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/7049\/7854\/collections\/matthew-cheyne-art-exhibition-picnic-black-white-mountain.jpg?v=1791442007","url":"https:\/\/mitchellfineartgallery.com\/de\/collections\/matthew-cheyne-exhibition-2026.oembed","provider":"Mitchell Fine Art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}