Matthew Quick’s talent extends beyond his exquisite rendering of form in paint. One of the sharpest intellects in Australian art, Quick’s inquiring mind, his ability to reconstruct and morph imagery to fit his ideological take, and the leavening of his wit make him a formidable iconoclast. 

The power of great civilisations is reflected in their monuments. Quick, though, asks us to consider what is left when the empires pass. It is the detritus that remains when power has faded that is at the heart of his work. Quick spares few cultures in his quest to disclose the rhetoric of the accepted history of a place. 

His interrogation is not confined to poking fun at the ancients; contemporary powers also receive a tonic dose of his satirical treatment.  Few are spared the pointed brush. Shopping trolleys—symbol of Western consumption—progress through the sands of the Sahara. Greek and Roman statues—so often appropriated by the autocrats of old—are reconceptualised into bikini-clad sirens, hot colours screaming at us against the cool of rendered marble. One feels the beat of the iPod and wonders how Caesar would have reacted to his family being “plugged in” and “tuned out”. 

Quick is a painter who keeps giving and testing. This is not banal wall furniture; he proposes a mirror, but the reflection may alter our view of what is happening in our world. He is inviting us to look behind the obvious. 

There is little doubt that, for Quick, the Surrealists provide an anterior modus operandi. I have no doubt that René Magritte would be gratified to know his subversive vision lives on scintillatingly in the Antipodes. 

Ralph Hobbs
2015

The AFR Weekend, 7-8 November 2015, featured a two-page full-colour article about Matthew Quick's life, career and upcoming exhibition and book launch at Nanda\Hobbs Contemporary. View the online article http://www.afr.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/art/melbourne-artist-matthew-quick-brings-his-monumental-icons-to-sydney-20151102-gkony6