Matt Coyle, The Forest, 2014, Felt tip pen and coloured pencil on paper, 82 x 55cm

Master draughtsman Matt Coyle is well known for his skilful use of black pen on white paper. In 2014 Coyle has introduced a bold new element into his work; colour. With this turn his subjects take on a new charge, rich and seductive, yet still hauntingly sinister. In Warm Blooded Playthings, Coyle presents a new series of meticulous drawings that display his flirtation with tinting and shading, with hues and saturation. The result is a heightened sense of drama, where hyper-real and menacing subjects bestow upon the work a palpable tension.

As Matthew Kirkcaldie (Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at the University of Tasmania) has aptly noted ‘through Coyle’s eyes, the world becomes a richer, more sinister place. These days we are deadened by imagery, films swamped by a tide of CGI, the endless styling of the trivial, viewing kids’ parties and live bands through our phone screens. Coyle gives us back the little, the simple, the quotidian – and suddenly everything around us crackles with significance.’