Matt Jukes’s monotype process starts by doing away with plates and screens, surrendering control to the flow of the ink.
Matt Jukes’s large-scale, one-of-a-kind monotypes are misremembered landscapes and nearly forgotten memories. His process starts by doing away with plates and screens, surrendering control to the flow of the ink.
Each work explores color and texture as the layers build over and over again, producing a discussion within the piece. Slowly, a memory of an emotion and a place will emerge, creating a space for dialogue with the viewer where they are invited to explore their own emotions and places.
His work is found in rooms of the British Institution, Claridge’s Hotel, and in private collections from Sri Lanka to Australia.
Gorgeous Landscape Monotype Prints
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Ink up to my elbows
“The decision to become a professional artist came from my discovery of printmaking and in particular monoprinting,” Matt says. “Getting ink up to my elbows with this very tangible medium has helped me find a voice and develop my visual style.”
Emotional connection
“One of my biggest influences is Rothko and my changing relationship with his work,” Matt recalls. “I disliked his work when studying him at uni out of books. But when I first arrived in London visited the Rothko Room at Tate Modern, I immediately realized the importance of the physical relationship with the viewer. I’ve focused much of my thinking on how to create an emotional connection with the viewer, and how that can change over time.”
Inspired by lockdown
Each trace of a smile or flicker of a frown will be captured by the viewer’s webcam, fed into the Feelscape algorithm, and used to generate a unique piece of art, based on the colors associated with each shade of feeling.
“I have just finished an interactive piece inspired by lockdown which tackles the way we perceive memories,” Matt says. “Psychologists predict that in five years’ time we will look back and remember very little of the pandemic. In a period when time has passed both surprisingly quickly, and painfully slowly, there have, for most of us, been too few points of reference from which to create substantial memories.
“As a result of this ongoing monotony, the mental health of many is starting to suffer.
“For this reason, I have created an interactive artwork, Feelscape, which enables viewers to immortalize the emotions of a happy memory into a one-off color-field landscape, without leaving the safety of their own home.”
The interactive experience invites viewers to pause for a moment, recollect a memory, breathe deeply, and re-experience the associated emotions. Each trace of a smile or flicker of a frown will be captured by the viewer’s webcam, fed into the Feelscape algorithm, and used to generate a unique piece of art, based on the colors associated with each shade of feeling. This artwork is then available to purchase, https://feelscape.art/
“I’ve also been working on my latest collection of monoprints which will launch at the Other Art Virtual fair on March 11-14th,” he says. “This collection deals with the way memories fade and change over time. Working back, overprinting and striping of ink, has built up many layers of light texture, which represent the way in which memory is more of a mist than a solid form.
Our memories let us see different places
“At the heart of my work is the concept that even though our memories let us see different places, we can all share the emotions they solicit,” Matt says. “So in a small way, I hope the legacy of my work will be a stronger connection to each other.”
To see Matt’s latest monotype prints, visit Saatchi Art >
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