Mat Denney is an artist working across the fields of printmaking, photography, interactive art, motion and animation, and drawing. He fell in love with print while studying for a foundation, which then led him to achieve a degree in Fine Art Printmaking from Norwich School of Art.
Initially working in stone litho, after a Power Mac appeared in the studio, Mat was blown away by what one could achieve digitally. “I often think in musical metaphors, and saw the Mac as sampler, synthesiser and sequencer” he explains. After graduating, he had no access to printing facilities and began to drift away from the art. 25 years later, whilst on a career break, he signed up for a refresher course at Bainbridge Print Studios, which Mat describes as a “homecoming“. He then started lecturing at London College of Communication, where students and staff have access to an incredible printmaking department, providing the opportunity for Mat to work with litho, intaglio, photopolymer and letterpress.
“I love the process of print; seeing one’s work transformed by chemical or mechanical means is fascinating. I vividly remember my first print; the rich denseness of the black lines felt more real than the original drawing. Process is our brilliant and mercurial collaborator; you make the work together, but you’re never entirely sure how it will turn out. Thinking two steps ahead to visualise how the elements interact. There’s always surprises; frustrating and thrilling.”
Mat’s work combines processes including photography, drawing, markmaking and vector, which he then composites in Photoshop. For example, his print, Gregor 3am, started as a photograph, was next transferred to litho stone, and was then worked into with tusche and crayon. Finally, Mat scanned it, added digitally generated textures, and it became an offset litho and screen print.
“My work used to be meticulously planned but I’ve started becoming more improvisational. Rauschenberg is a big influence and I love how he’d screen print onto the canvas in a very free-form way. I’m making much smaller editions now and this has allowed me to experiment and jam with the layers” concludes the artist.
www.matdenney.com
@iamcyanblue
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