About

Matthew Thorley is an Australian-born visual artist living and working in the United States. His current practice is an endeavor to articulate gesture with his body as a mark making tool using charcoal, wet clay and porcelain. Thorley’s sculptures attempt to capture the energy contained within particular negative spaces formed by the body. Other works are sublime recordings of singular, repetitive movements. His Wall Drawing series are the result of intense, durational, physical performances in which he uses his body, clay and water to create large-scale wall drawings and sculptures. By exhausting the body, his mind fatigues into a semi-conscious mode and body automation develops a specific gestural movement. He is interested in documenting the body as an artifact within his concept of a “bodiless future.”

Thorley has a BA in Fine Art from Curtin University in Perth, Australia and has exhibited nationally and including at CICA Museum in South Korea, Sun Valley Museum of Art, RuptureXIBIT in the United Kingdom, fortyfivedownstairs Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, Blue Galleries, Center for the Visual Arts, Boise State University and The Common Well Gallery in Boise, Idaho. In Thorley's solo exhibition Structural Dependency he collaborated with an award winning choreographer to create a dance performance that was nominated for four Western Australia Performing Arts Awards. Thorley’s 2025 solo exhibition Anatomy of Fatigue included performance, installation and drawings exploring the body. Most recently he has been selected to participate in the 2026 Spring/Summer SHOW & TELL Artist Residency at The Common Well, a shared project of The Common Well and Alexa Rose Foundation.