Matthew Couper

Since leaving art school in 1999, Matthew Couper has produced a body of work notable for its formal variety, skilled making and provocativeness. From the outset, his work was an uneasy mix of unfashionable oil painting (“so last-century” to quote Couper) and a precocious cynicism about the machinations of the art world, with its private and institutional patronage, taste-makers and insider-ism.

Matthew Couper is fascinated by the origins and meanings of symbols. His art bristles with swastikas, crucifixions and secret codes. Often these symbols are irreverently or wittily reinterpreted, forcing us to rethink their meanings. Here Couper paints various symbols of good and bad luck onto two wooden platters.