Toronto-born, Montreal-raised, Matt Chessco is a former industrial designer and mechanical engineer who left his full-time job during the pandemic to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.
Using celebrity muses such as Billie Ellish, he began painting with acrylic on canvas with his playful combinations of vibrant colours, distinctive van Gogh-like strokes, and a Warhol-esque style of pop art.
Chessco’s first solo exhibition, ArtOfficial, presented by the Canadian National Exhibition, is open to the public at Withrow Common Gallery until January 5, and features 57 paintings including portraits of cultural icons from celebrities such as Harry Styles, Taylor Swift and Cardi B, to Bob Ross, SpongeBob SquarePants and Chewbacca.
For Holiday hours, please go to www.withrowcommon.ca.
Part of the CNE’s goal to present the exhibition is to foster conversations around the future of art, technology, artificial intelligence and human expression.
During the exhibition run, Chessco has taken his Artist Residency at Withrow Common Gallery to create new works to add to his collection — including the unveiling of an original portrait of global music icon and Toronto’s very own, Drake.
Chessco will debut the portrait in true form, using his social media channels and viral creation videos that he is known for.
His art has reached the homes of many celebrities like Post Malone, Bella Poarch, Corn Kid and Gary Vee; but it is his social media videos on Tik Tok and YouTube that have generated worldwide attention.
While the concept of artists sharing painting videos on Tik Tok was gaining popularity, Chessco took it to the next level with highly stylized, choreographed videos using stop-motion to capture the layers of his art.
Within the span of three years, he has acquired over 2.4M subscribers on YouTube, and 2.8M followers on TikTok while his videos have received over 2 billion views across all platforms.
Chessco has also forayed to the metaverse with his NFT creations and continues to explore the possibilities of art and AI technology, which he used to create his Lion painting.
The exhibition, ArtOfficial, showcases his original paintings alongside a computerized robotic arm, engineered by Montreal-based art-tech start-up Acrylic Robotics, as recently seen on CBC’s Dragon’s Den.
Using programmed software, the “Art Bot” will create original replicas of Chessco’s work, stroke for stroke, colour for colour, using a brush and acrylic paints as the artist does.
The results are near-identical artworks that will have patrons asking which was painted by the artist or robot, and issues of creative copyright, consent, accessibility and commercialization of art.
Is art that uses AI or computerized technology considered authentic or artificial?
ArtOfficial, presented by the Canadian National Exhibition, is open to the public at Withrow Common Gallery at Exhibition Place, and runs through to January 5, 2024.
For exhibition holiday hours and more information, go to www.WithrowCommon.ca.