Origin: Holden, MA, USA
Currently Exhibiting in: New York City
Website: matthewcwaite.com
Social Media: Instagram | LinkedIn
Bio:
Matthew Charles Waite is an artist whose multidisciplinary approach bridges painting, mixed media, and conceptual storytelling. Raised in Holden, MA, Waite’s passion for visual thinking began at an early age, guided by a fascination with landscapes and color. Self-taught through countless hours of practice and experimentation, Waite’s journey took shape during his academic career at Anna Maria College, where he earned both a Bachelor’s and a graduate degree in Integrated Media Arts. His evolving practice is grounded in sustainability, with found objects and natural materials woven into his works to reflect on themes of environmental change and human connection to nature.
Waite’s distinctive Reductive Painting technique serves as the foundation of his artistic practice, where layers of color are painted, scraped, and partially revealed to create dynamic compositions that mirror the complexity of thought. His work has been recognized with multiple awards and exhibitions, including the Juror’s Choice Award at Camelback Gallery’s My Best Work of 2024 and special merit at Light Space & Time’s Nature Art Exhibition. Currently the STAR Artist in Residence at Eagle Hill School, Waite’s latest series, Winter in New England, offers a contemplative exploration of seasonal transformation and emotional resonance.
Featured Artwork at Bushwick Gallery
Summer Squall
- Year of Creation: 2025
- Medium: Acrylic, marker, ink, dirt, gesso, pencil
- Dimensions: 16 1/2″ x 8 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ (at center) 3/4″ (at edges)
- Price: $800 USD
Description:
Summer Squall captures the fleeting yet powerful changes within the natural world and the emotional responses they evoke. Created using Waite’s Reductive Painting method, the work reflects on the shifting seasons of New England, where winter landscapes no longer follow predictable patterns. The left side of the piece radiates a sense of joy, with warm undertones and loose, gestural marks symbolizing the excitement of the season’s first snowfall. In contrast, the right side embraces muted tones and somber textures, evoking the sudden descent into seasonal melancholy.
Incorporating natural materials like dirt, gesso, and ink, Waite grounds the piece in tangible reality while allowing its abstract forms to evoke memory and emotion. The exposed layers create a dynamic interplay of depth and texture, mirroring the shifting mental and physical landscapes affected by climate change. The work is both personal and universal, challenging viewers to reflect on how environmental transformation shapes not only the world but also our inner emotional terrain.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition Title: Love and Heartbreak: A Duality
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 13 / 6PM-8PM
Exhibition Dates: February 13 – February 20
Theme: Love and Heartbreak: A Duality examines the spectrum of emotions that define relationships, nature, and human experience. Matthew Charles Waite’s Summer Squall bridges this theme through its exploration of nature’s unpredictability and the emotional turbulence it triggers. The duality within the painting—joy and despair, light and shadow—mirrors the opposing forces of love and loss, making it a powerful visual metaphor for the fragility of both the environment and human emotion.
Guided audio experience
For accessibility, the full video transcript is provided below for those who prefer to read or are unable to listen.
“Weather has a way of reflecting the inner world—its highs and lows, moments of stillness and sudden storms. In Summer Squall, Matthew Charles Waite captures this connection between nature’s unpredictability and human emotion, layering paint like shifting skies, carving through color like wind against the earth.”
“At first glance, this is a landscape—not in the traditional sense, but in feeling. A storm of vertical lines, streaked and eroded, each mark revealing a history beneath it. Waite’s Reductive Painting technique scrapes away layers, exposing what was once hidden, much like memory, much like love—both built up and broken down over time.”
“On the left, warmth and movement, a richness that holds the promise of something new—the first snow of the season, the anticipation of change. But toward the right, the mood shifts. Colors mute, forms tighten. The sky darkens, the weight of time settles in. The fleeting joy of transformation gives way to its inevitable cost. This is the nature of a summer squall—brief, beautiful, but always carrying the possibility of something more ominous.”
“Waite doesn’t just paint landscapes—he paints transitions. The space between seasons, between emotions, between the known and the unknown. His use of natural materials—dirt, ink, gesso—grounds the work, making it tangible, real. This isn’t just a reflection of the world outside; it is a meditation on change, on loss, on the ways storms are weathered.”
“What season are you in? Standing in the warmth of something beginning? Or bracing for what comes next? Either way, the storm will pass. It always does.”