Self-taught sculptor Matthew Gray Palmer was born in 1973 at Clark Air Base near Angeles City, Luzon Island, Philippines. He later moved back to the US with his family, growing up in Columbus, Ohio. At age 8 he began making his first life-size creatures out of available materials such as newspaper and masking tape. Following his creative instincts and opting to pass on several major merit scholarships from various art institutes around the country, Matthew began working full time at Old World Stone Carving. For six years Matthew gained tremendous experience designing and executing commissioned sculptures and architectural elements. He became skilled at using a variety of traditional media including stone, marble, clay, wood, and bronze. Several of his carvings during this period were featured on The Home and Garden Network’s program Modern Masters.
In 1995, Matthew started Parallaxis, an endeavor dedicated to educating people about natural science and conservation through public works of art and multimedia events. At the age of 25, he was awarded his first monumental public art commission, a life size horse and boy entitled The Still Point for The Buckeye Ranch. The sculpture was met with rave reviews and launched Matthew’s successful career as a monument sculptor.
“The degree of symbolism in my work varies from piece to piece. I find that the most interesting images are ambiguous by nature and therefore replete with a personal symbolism for any one individual viewer’s interpretation. Although I work in a variety of styles, each piece is manifest from a unified intention and process of seeing.
I am interested in exploring matter/energy dynamics and transformations as elements assemble, propagate, consume, and manifest a myriad of forms, creatures, landscapes and respective systems. Themes that appear in various ways throughout my work include harmonic resonances, complimentary structures, the interface between apparent dichotomous relationships such as bodies/space, predator/prey, birth/death, charge/magnetism, quantum oscillations in space and time – and the levels of perception that this duality breaks down to become unified. Most broad in its influence is a continuous sense of wonder and awe inspired in the life experience leading us to further explore and understand our nature.”
