Matt Hunt Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1967 -

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      • Persian inlaid mosaic frame with hunt scene in painted matt
        Nov. 19, 2022

        Persian inlaid mosaic frame with hunt scene in painted matt

        Est: $100 - $150

        Persian inlaid mosaic frame with hunt scene in painted matt, 20th century, overall 14.5"h x 12.25"w

        Clars Auctions
      • MATT HUNT UTOPIAN SPIRITUAL SPACE MACHINE
        Aug. 09, 2021

        MATT HUNT UTOPIAN SPIRITUAL SPACE MACHINE

        Est: $25,000 - $35,000

        Matt Hunt UTOPIAN SPIRITUAL SPACE MACHINE 2008 oil on canvas inscribed UTOPIAN SPIRITUAL SPACE MACHINE- THE ANGELIC ELECT CREW OF THE MEGASTARSHIP ADX 7007 SEND VISIONS OF SUPEREALITY TO ALL TRUTHSEEKERS ON EARTH! in brushpoint upper left 1300 x 2400mm   PROVENANCE Private collection, Sydney. Acquired from Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 2008.   Matt Hunt - Sandpits of Eternity Essay by JULIAN MCKINNON   Spacecraft, crystals, utopian cities floating in the sky, glimpses of damnation and eternal bliss, fountains, luminous beings, crucifixions, demons, domesticity and consumerism – these are but some of the themes one encounters in the paintings of Matt Hunt. His works defy categorisation, such is the layering and complexity of their content. One can detect certain recurrent themes or archetypes running through them: new age spirituality, Christianity, confrontations between good and evil, alien visitations, technology, and a biblical ark-like diversity of animals. This manifold subject matter is arranged as if according to some arcane code, conveying a profound, yet not quite decipherable, insight into the nature of the universe.   Hunt’s paintings invite viewers to engage, reflect, and attempt to decode their layered symbology. To that end, they are riddles, perhaps without answers. Conclusions drawn as to their meaning will be as diverse and numerous as their audience. How exactly does one unpack the hidden message of a winged and sword bearing Christ with a coin-operated washing machine for head and torso on a rocket-crucifix? Or of a humanoid tiger with wings, accompanied by a robot clutching a flying V guitar, on board a spacecraft-meditation room overlooking an earth-like planet? These are playful paintings, in which one can take delight. They are conjured by an interesting mind, engaged in a flight of fancy, coupled with accomplished technical finesse and grace. The at-ease sense of humour present in the work offers assurance that the artist was having a wonderful time while creating.   Hunt’s artistic vision is unique. It is also under-appreciated in the New Zealand art lexicon. Relationships to the work of Bill Hammond, Roger Mortimer, Séraphine Pick and perhaps also Richard Killeen are detectable. However, the vision presented is altogether different to any of those artists. Hunt draws on paranoiac aspects of contemporary culture – surveillance technology, military hegemony, conspiratorial whisperings of imminent dystopia – while weaving in threads of consumer tech and sci-fi, biblical judgement and spiritual enlightenment. These paintings summarise the pain and possibility of our age, when utopia seems both a naïve dream and a tantalisingly possibility.   All of these threads can be read in two excellent examples of Hunt’s work, Memory of the Sacrifice (Lot 72), and Utopian Spiritual Space Machine (Lot 73). The latter, with its winged-tiger space commander figure and guitar-wielding robot companion, was painted in 2008. Its aesthetic is more sci-fi pastiche, with apparent reference to new-age spirituality in its blue and mauve crystals and space-ascension flight crew. The former, whose central figure is the washing-machine Christ, was painted in 2011. In its depiction of a cathedral window, a trumpet-blowing angel, and winding staircase to heaven (along with escalator descending to hell) the references to religious painting are obvious. Yet its sci-fi space windows and jet-levitation crucifix lend it another, quirkier frame of reference. For all their differences, both of these paintings are unequivocally of a single visual sensibility.   In some ways, one could liken these sumptuous oil paintings to the religious art of bygone centuries – Botticelli’s angels, the iconographic hosts of Fra Angelico, or the darkly imaginative depictions of heaven and hell of Hieronymus Bosch. Though in a sense, these are false equivalences. Such artists are no more antecedents of his style than religious scripture is a predecessor to science fiction; one might string together connections, though they are unlikely to stand up to ruthless analysis. Hunt’s visual lexicon and style of painting is very much of the 21st century; it would have made little sense prior to the existence of the internet.   Hunt’s fantastical figurative paintings, with their utopias, space flight, heavens and hells, flying cars and dinosaurs, winged creatures, luminous cities and crystal pools are microcosms of the complexity, confusion, and prospective wonder of our time. They are illustrative, yet poetic; beautifully painted, but with just enough of a cartoonish touch to eliminate any sense that they are taking themselves too seriously; playful, though speaking to grand themes of the cosmos – sandpits of eternity.

        Webb’s – Specialist Auctioneers
      • MATT HUNT Memory Of The Sacrifice
        Aug. 09, 2021

        MATT HUNT Memory Of The Sacrifice

        Est: $25,000 - $35,000

        Matt Hunt Memory Of The Sacrifice 2001 oil on canvas signed M. Hunt, dated 2001 and inscribed MEMORY OF THE SACRIFICE in brushpoint upper edge 1500 x 1100mm   PROVENANCE Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 2011.   EXHIBITIONS Matt Hunt: Supereality, Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 13 April - 7 May 2011.   Matt Hunt - Sandpits of Eternity Essay by JULIAN MCKINNON   Spacecraft, crystals, utopian cities floating in the sky, glimpses of damnation and eternal bliss, fountains, luminous beings, crucifixions, demons, domesticity and consumerism – these are but some of the themes one encounters in the paintings of Matt Hunt. His works defy categorisation, such is the layering and complexity of their content. One can detect certain recurrent themes or archetypes running through them: new age spirituality, Christianity, confrontations between good and evil, alien visitations, technology, and a biblical ark-like diversity of animals. This manifold subject matter is arranged as if according to some arcane code, conveying a profound, yet not quite decipherable, insight into the nature of the universe.   Hunt’s paintings invite viewers to engage, reflect, and attempt to decode their layered symbology. To that end, they are riddles, perhaps without answers. Conclusions drawn as to their meaning will be as diverse and numerous as their audience. How exactly does one unpack the hidden message of a winged and sword bearing Christ with a coin-operated washing machine for head and torso on a rocket-crucifix? Or of a humanoid tiger with wings, accompanied by a robot clutching a flying V guitar, on board a spacecraft-meditation room overlooking an earth-like planet? These are playful paintings, in which one can take delight. They are conjured by an interesting mind, engaged in a flight of fancy, coupled with accomplished technical finesse and grace. The at-ease sense of humour present in the work offers assurance that the artist was having a wonderful time while creating.   Hunt’s artistic vision is unique. It is also under-appreciated in the New Zealand art lexicon. Relationships to the work of Bill Hammond, Roger Mortimer, Séraphine Pick and perhaps also Richard Killeen are detectable. However, the vision presented is altogether different to any of those artists. Hunt draws on paranoiac aspects of contemporary culture – surveillance technology, military hegemony, conspiratorial whisperings of imminent dystopia – while weaving in threads of consumer tech and sci-fi, biblical judgement and spiritual enlightenment. These paintings summarise the pain and possibility of our age, when utopia seems both a naïve dream and a tantalisingly possibility.   All of these threads can be read in two excellent examples of Hunt’s work, Memory of the Sacrifice (Lot 72), and Utopian Spiritual Space Machine (Lot 73). The latter, with its winged-tiger space commander figure and guitar-wielding robot companion, was painted in 2008. Its aesthetic is more sci-fi pastiche, with apparent reference to new-age spirituality in its blue and mauve crystals and space-ascension flight crew. The former, whose central figure is the washing-machine Christ, was painted in 2011. In its depiction of a cathedral window, a trumpet-blowing angel, and winding staircase to heaven (along with escalator descending to hell) the references to religious painting are obvious. Yet its sci-fi space windows and jet-levitation crucifix lend it another, quirkier frame of reference. For all their differences, both of these paintings are unequivocally of a single visual sensibility.   In some ways, one could liken these sumptuous oil paintings to the religious art of bygone centuries – Botticelli’s angels, the iconographic hosts of Fra Angelico, or the darkly imaginative depictions of heaven and hell of Hieronymus Bosch. Though in a sense, these are false equivalences. Such artists are no more antecedents of his style than religious scripture is a predecessor to science fiction; one might string together connections, though they are unlikely to stand up to ruthless analysis. Hunt’s visual lexicon and style of painting is very much of the 21st century; it would have made little sense prior to the existence of the internet.   Hunt’s fantastical figurative paintings, with their utopias, space flight, heavens and hells, flying cars and dinosaurs, winged creatures, luminous cities and crystal pools are microcosms of the complexity, confusion, and prospective wonder of our time. They are illustrative, yet poetic; beautifully painted, but with just enough of a cartoonish touch to eliminate any sense that they are taking themselves too seriously; playful, though speaking to grand themes of the cosmos – sandpits of eternity.

        Webb’s – Specialist Auctioneers
      • Matt Hunt (b. 1967)
        May. 15, 2018

        Matt Hunt (b. 1967)

        Est: $800 - $1,200

        They Are the Freaks that Inhabit our Worst Nightmares, They Are Evil, They Live, gouache on paper, titled u.c. 'They Are the Freaks that Inhabit our Worst Nightmares, They Are Evil, They Live'

        Shapiro Auctioneers
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