Matt Crookshank

For CV refer to mattcrookshank.com

Matt Crookshank is a Canadian painter, animator, digital artist and master of all things mystical. He dares to paint fearlessly and without restraint.

From mystical storytelling to alchemical investigations, his works call to mind the traditional lineage of American abstract expressionists Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell with the contemporary colour mastery of Peter Halley and Joseph Drapell. Crookshank is constantly playing with psychic powers in his intuitive painting, one wand-like brushstroke at a time.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the prestigious program at Queen’s University, Crookshank worked as an assistant to Vancouver conceptual superstar Ken Lum (famous for his Guggenheim Fellowship). Crookshank has also teamed up with high profile curators Jamie Angell, Wil Kucey and RM Vaughan to showcase his colorfully explosive paintings in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, London, Switzerland, Mexico and Toronto over the past 10 years.

He has been called “one of the most important Canadian painters” in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Toronto Star and Canadian Art; and remains in the limelight as one of the best ones to watch in Carte Blanche, an exclusive hardcover book selected by the jury of the Magenta Foundation, which saw their launch at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto.

“… I started to crawl into my own drawings, and I noticed there were all these conflicting tendencies – harsh lines and marks mixed with more fluid, organic shapes. It looked like a war to me. So I put my conflicting impulses on the canvas to see if they could come to some sort of agreement.”
-Matt Crookshank

“I’m a little bit obsessed with the idea of toxic spills and toxic waste, because I feel we really live in a toxic world and we are seduced by our own toxicity. We all live in a world where we do things everyday that are bad for us – bad for everyone – and everyone does it and we can’t stop doing it.”
-Matt Crookshank

Acclaim for Matt Crookshank

“Matt Crookshank is one of the most important painters in contemporary Canadian art, he delves into paint fearlessly, paints with remarkable gusto and leaves the viewer thirsty for more.”
-Nadja Sayej, host, ArtStars*

“Matt Crookshank’s work… appears to have been painted on a dare. Forget all the rules about harmonious use of colour or balanced composition, these paintings look like birthday cakes attacked by jack hammers.”
-NOW magazine

“The works of Matt Crookshank are not simply pretty pictures but rather a visual expunging of the manifold ideas that rattle around the artist’s skull.”
-Travis Reynolds, art critic, Swerve Magazine

“Matt Crookshank maps out a kaleidoscopic, jewel-toned virtual universe in his digital paintings.”
-Bryne McLaughlin, Canadian Art magazine

“His flamboyant, happy disasters demonstrate by contrast how bland and predictable most contemporary abstraction has become.”
-RM Vaughan, Toronto art critic, The Globe and Mail