“Roots, Religion and Reptiles” will be on view until mid-June
Aruban artist and former art teacher, Nigel Matthew opened his first solo exhibition on Saturday night to a packed Westin Art Gallery full of his family, friends and fans. Using the religious symbolism he grew up with in the heavily Roman Catholic Society, he has created modern “iconic” art works which embraces the same devotion and richness as traditional Greek Orthodox icons. His religion’s elaborate amount of symbolism and rituals played a great role in his childhood fantasy, and part of this exhibit are these fantasies on canvas.
He was also intrigued by a recent discovery of an old family photo album, and challenged himself to allow his new discovery to be the source of inspiration for his first solo expo. Beautiful photographs of his parents, grandparents and other relatives, being the Roots of his Life, left their imprints on his retina, but it was a great challenge to create works of art that could reflect not only his ethnical background, but also his skills as an artist. So he chose to make use of the old art form of painting religious portraits on wooden panels, in a contemporary style.
Once he got on his creative rollercoaster as Nigel calls it, everything started to fall into place. He took the liberty of playing with shapes, colors and textures coming from his fervent passion for shells and lizards, as a replacement for so many religious symbols. Reptiles, such as lizards and iquanas, the most common fauna around us here in Aruba, boldly shows off their undeniable beauty on his canvasses. These creatures often come to visit the artist in his studio.
Nigel hopes that, by means of these visual images, to either sympathize or criticize the never-ending theme of Religion.
The Westin Art Gallery is located in the upper lobby of the Westin Resort in Palm Beach. The gallery welcomes everybody to come in and view the art at any time. Roots, Religion and Reptiles will be on view until the middle of June.
