Krzysztof Mathews's artist's statement:

I have been using a combination of physical sculpture and digital technology as tools for illustration for several years. One of the continuing inspirations for my work are the art of the Japanese print, animation, and comic-book traditions. This takes two forms:

Content: I have always had a fascination with the portrayals of the Japanese warrior ideal through its heroes...and the recurrence of a tragic worldview in which the heroes often find themselves caught between the obligations of the group and the constraints of their own personal honour....I have also had an abiding fascination with the role of the cybernetic or mechanical, which has been a very prominent subject of Japanese comc tradition for the past fifty years. Some of these series are entirely concerned with a warring society comprised entirely of robots. My own work is closest to this. I have spent the past few years creatig the characters and stories concerning a race of cybernetic organisms known as the Endomeq, who live in a feudal society of warring clans.

Craft: Japanese artwork has greatly influenced my style of illustration. The work of the contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami made me aware of how I could best integrate that aesthetic efficetvely into my own style. I found that the ability of the digital media to create surfaces and textures with a high resolution was paradoxically interfering with the clarity of my images. When I came across Murakami's work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I realized that the traditional aesthetic of the Japanese art forms (what Murakami refers to as the "super-flat") was a vital and powerful means of expression by which the use of line and bold colour could serve to integrate and simplify composition and thus embolden the content. I found this aesthetic was greatly complementary to the conceptual themes of my art, which concern the roles, conflicts, and responsibilities of the hero in a stratified, militarized society. 

First Gear Territories

It is my intention to create a series of prints and sculptures that serve to illustrate this society. The artwork that I have created as part of the First Gear Territories storyline is intended as an exploration and satire of the role of the individual in an environment of violence, dogma and territorial ambition. Towards that end, I am looking to focus on the role of the Egg as the subject of the incessant inter-clan strife that defines the everyday existence of the Endomeq culture. I look forward to exploring the role of propaganda as a mechanism for maintaining group solidarity, through the vilification of perceived enemies, celebration of heroic ideals, and didactic presentation of potential threats.

See  my website: http://www.firstgearterritories.com for more details.

About Krzysztof Mathews:

Krzysztof Mathews has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin. His imaginative world, found online and in numerous shows in the northeast, draws a steadily-increasing stream of followers.