For over a decade Matthew Stradling has been producing paintings which celebrate the body and sensuality, whilst making serious comments about desire, loneliness and mortality with a skilful and extravagant touch and a knowing sense of humour. His work has been exhibited in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and New York and has been featured in numerous magazine articles, from The Face to Blue. Matthew's work has been collected internationally and collectors include Marc Almond and Ivan Massow. In his recent work, Matthew presents a series of paintings depicting a dream-like vision of opulence. Centred around single idealised nudes the works take on a religiious significance as the subjects present themselves as though touched by divinity or in ecstatic repose. Classical accessories like halos, rays of light and wings allude to Renaissance Art: yet these are thoroughly contemporary paintings, subversive of male stereotypes. These beautiful boys stare out from their bejewelled worlds seemingly haunted by their own perfection. It is all very excessive and definitely 'tongue-in-cheek'. Matthew's fantasies of splendour are not depictions of material wealth: they are more celebrations of the wealth of the imagination, where the mind is free to gather images of beauty from different eras and cultures, a freedom that lends the paintings a transcendental spiritual essence.