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| Matthew Langille
Matthew Langille was born May 3, 1982 in Princeton, New Jersey. Matthew was never a dull child and grew up in a family of artists. His grandfather, Harold Krisel, was a member of the American Abstract Artist group and created silk screens and paintings now in private and public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the British Museum in London. His mother, Judy Langille, is a renowned fiber artist, known nationally for her quilt art and whole cloth compositions. |
Matthew grew up in both of their studios and spent considerable time as a
boy traveling with his family to art museums from New York and Paris to
Madrid, London and Amsterdam. Matthew was always charismatic and has one of those bigger than life
personalities with an impish, mischievous smile. He began to express
himself artistically for the first time when he attended a fine arts
camp at the age of eleven. There he was introduced to glass blowing
which became an outlet for his creative energy. Soon the youth art camp
wasn’t challenging enough for Matthew so he sought the tutelage of
commercially successful adult glass artists in Philadelphia, who had
worked with renowned glass artist, Dale Chihuly.
Up until he was seventeen years of age he was noncommittal regarding any future course of study other than glass. Then suddenly he taught himself to draw so that he could apply to a few selected college art programs. As a result, in 2000, he was accepted at Alfred University in Alfred, New York where he received a comprehensive education in all the art forms from ceramics and life drawing to print making. He studied impressionism in Gauguin’s old studios and worked on art installations in the French countryside outside Pont Aven, France the first summer of his university studies. This program was sponsored by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Shortly after entering College Matthew was itching to find a new medium to explore other than glass in which to express himself and soon after he noticed that all of the cute girls in his school were in the design department, so he swiftly changed gears to the study of design. He came into his own shortly after graduating from college, when his prints and drawings were showcased in a one man gallery exhibition in NYC. Soon after he began to have his illustrations and images published in art magazines in the U.S. and abroad. Matthew developed his own edgy and often provocative, style and soon became a prolific young artist, based in New York City. He has now put his boundless creative energy to work for global fashion houses and design firms such as Marc by Marc Jacobs, Adidas, Swatch, Havaianas, SIGG, and Victoria’s Secret, all featured on his web site, http://www.matthewlangille.com and his new blog http://matthewlangille.com/blog . Three of his designs are currently showcased in the Swatch Creart Artist Collection sold around the world. He now joins the ranks of other famous designers, artists, musicians, and film directors that have participated in Swatch’s Artist Collections over the past twenty-five years, such as Keith Haring, Vivienne Westwood, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Spike Lee, and Kiki Picasso. He has been interviewed and featured in over fifty magazines and publications around the world such as Vogue, Elle, Marie Clare, Dazed and Confused, The LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Numero Tokyo, Maxim, Men’s Health, InStyle, i-D Magazine and Oyster Magazine, to name only a few.
His clever, witty imagery exhibits a distinctively light-hearted style that sets him apart from the crowd. Vogue recently referred to Matthew’s work as an, “upbeat and humorous view of modern society”. And world famous fashion designer Norma Kamali once wrote to Matthew regarding his artwork saying,” it has an innocence and simplicity that is as pure as some Picasso drawings.”
Matthew continues to develop as an artist while creating images, graphic and text designs, patterns and crayon drawings in the ever-changing space where art and fashion meet. He is usually found drawing characters and designs intently with a fine point black pen and a stack of white computer printer paper. It is an organic process inspired by Matthew’s mind involving numerous iterations of his creation directly translated to print or a computer graphics. His studio is surrounded by a huge collection of sample products displaying his images in bold primary colors.
Matthew has made his presence known and it is a notable beginning for this young rising star. Only the realization of Matthew’s fullest potential will determine how far and high it will go.
