Matthew Couper

Matthew Couper was born 1976 in Hastings and currently lives in Las Vegas, USA. He graduated with a BFA from the Quay School of the Arts, Whanganui in 1998. Couper began exhibiting in 1999 and exhibits regularly throughout the USA, France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. He has been a finalist in the Visa Gold Art Award (1998) and has been a consistent finalist in the James Wallace Art Awards. His works are held in public collections worldwide. Couper’s recent work reflects his interest in Spanish Colonial art, conflated with capitalist American sentiment found in the playground city of Las Vegas. His work represents a development of ‘cultural currency' within the machinations of corporate America. The work, depicted in various scales and on a multitude of materials, often tackles social and political viewpoints from a recent immigrant’s outsider perspective. Couper’s cast of characters play out a narrative that can be read in a multiplicity of ways.