Matthew Quick

Matthew is the winner of the 2008 Townsville Open Art Award. He has also been selected as a finalist for the 2009 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture, the 2009 the Churchie National Emerging Art Award, the 2009 Prometheus Visual Art Award, the 2008 Mortimore Art Prize; the 2008 Norville Art Prize; the 2008 John Leslie Art Prize; the 2008 Mosman Art Prize; the 2008 Stanthorpe Art Prize; the 2008 35th Alice Prize; the
2007 Duke Art Prize; the 2007 Mortimore Art Prize and the 2007 MacarthurCook Art Awards – for which he also received the Staff (People’s Choice) Award. He has had several successful solo shows in Melbourne and was accepted for the 06, 07 08 & 09 Archibald Prize Salon de Refusés.

Matthew first began painting as a teenager, but for a long time pursued other interests. He has worked variously as a graphic designer, photographer, life model, cleaner, salesman, art director, copywriter & interior designer. In the early 1990's he taught at the art college ACPAC, in the middle nineties he wrote fiction, and in the late nineties lectured at Victoria University. Until 2005 he was also the Creative Director of his own advertising agency, Q&A. His first novel was short-listed for the Vogel Literature award, and he spent 5 years writing his second magnum opus. In recent years he returned to full time painting.

Matthew’s paintings have been used as book covers by Penguin Books & Era Publications. Other works have been purchased by Bayside City Council, Sheraton Hotels, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Mars Corporation, Marriott Hotels, Kodak, The Department of State Development, Peddle Thorpe Architects, Westfield, NSW Railways, Playboy and Australia Post.

His work has been reproduced in many magazines, books and journals including Communication Arts, Idea, Design World, Graphis & Novum. His art has received numerous awards including several MADC awards and from the prestigious “One Show” in New York.

He travels constantly, has resided variously in the UK, Portugal & Malaysia, and once lived underneath a grand piano in Greenwich. He has spent nights under stars in India, under ground in Bolivia, and under nourished in London. His scariest moment was having machine-gun shoved in his face during anti-monarchy riots in Nepal, although crashing a para-glider into a forest was also something of a highlight.