Matthew Freeborn
Overview
Scaffold Guardian, 2025
Matthew’s practice begins with theatrical hooks that open into a joyful but rigorous enquiry into narrative, mark-making, and a language built from props, symbols, and everyday materials. He often works beyond the usual canvas, using reclaimed wood, faux fur, and found elements to create pieces that feel staged, playful, and instinctive.
The paintings move between loose figuration and abstraction, with bold, weathered colour and textures that feel worked, handled, and lived-in. Motifs recur — a horse-like silhouette, tree forms, small characters, architectural fragments — but never settle into a fixed story. Instead, they create a shifting visual set where images echo, collide, and reappear in new configurations.
The paintings move between loose figuration and abstraction, with bold, weathered colour and textures that feel worked, handled, and lived-in. Motifs recur — a horse-like silhouette, tree forms, small characters, architectural fragments — but never settle into a fixed story. Instead, they create a shifting visual set where images echo, collide, and reappear in new configurations.
Biography
Scaffold Guardian, 2025
Matthew is a British artist who grew up in Hertfordshire and is currently based in London. He studied film production and worked in the record industry pressing vinyl before studying fine art painting at Camberwell College of Arts (UAL) in 2021. After graduating from his BA, he completed a Masters in painting at The Royal college of Art in 2025.
Aside from the art he’s studied and encountered throughout his life, Matthew believes his interest in music and film has had a profound effect on his art-making, helping to stretch his imagination and shape the rhythm of his paintings. Matthew has exhibited in galleries across London including Galleria Objects, Greatorex Street, Terrace Gallery, and Maverick Projects.
Works
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Moonlight Guardian, 2025 -
Outpost, 2025
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Resembling Snow, 2025
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Scaffold Guardian, 2025
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Untitled, 2025
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6 OCLOCK, 2024
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The Picture, the window, and the Asparagus, 2024
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