Matthew Lawrence uses the repetition of images to form his artistic language. Borrowing heavily from American iconography, viewing his work often feels as though you have been placed in front of TV set as it surfs through countless channels. However, these appropriated images have been twisted and tweaked to deliver a very different message. Often interlaced with racial overtones and various societal critiques these images take on a darker meaning. His somber humor critiques middle class anxieties, the façade of masculinity, and the carelessness of capitalism.

Since arriving in the States from my native England I have been producing images, which are a twisted, perverse reflection of the American dream. I use appropriated images in a whirlpool of visual mayhem. It is in this pictorial chaos that I enter a gray area where I may raise more questions about my work than give answers. I comment on art as being an object of material obsession but do not desire for my own work to be viewed this way.

—Matthew Lawrence, 1995

Born in York, England, Matthew Lawrence received a MFA from the Tyler School of Art and a Foundation in Art and Design from Brighton Polytechnic in England.