Past exhibitions
Matteo Calisti
Second Blueprint artist, Matteo Calisti was born in Bologna, Italy and moved to Mackay in 2019. Calisti’s creative practice began at an early age, working in paint, ink drawing and clay sculpture, before moving into digital art in 2013.
Digital illustration affords Calisti a freedom to take his practise in ever changing directions. His work has an unbound, dreamlike quality to it with a nod to the Italian comics he grew up reading.
Hints, Echoes and Breadcrumbs
Calisti describes this series as “being about the critical blueprint of a human being; their instants, feelings, desires, hopes and fears.” This new series explores human consciousness — the flow of thoughts and experiences, some corrupted and lost and some images preserved forever in the folds of our brain.
Image: Jim Cullen Photographer
Matthew Izard ‘Muddy Grimes’
Muddy Grimes is a tattoo artist who moved to Mackay in 2012. He started his creative journey plastering paste-ups in the Gold Coast. Menagerie of the Criminally Insane feature Grimes’ fantastical and vibrant animal characters, which can also be seen in in Mackay’s award-winning 5th Lane, Mackay City Centre.
Menagerie of the Criminally Insane
Immediately upon hearing the words Blueprint I thought of the original sketch you may use when creating a work of art. Almost never will I create a final piece without first sketching my intentions out, and that was my concept for this series of works. I wanted to show even a small part of the original sketch I use to build upon while also showing the end results. The sketch being the ‘blueprint’. Each piece is torn to give a peek at what the original intention was while also being able to see the final product. A blueprint to me is more of an idea or direction than a set plan.
Image: Installation view, Muddy Grimes: ‘Menagerie of the Criminally Insane’, Foodspace Café – Artspace Mackay. Image: Jim Cullen Photographer