Matthew Dye | Painter of Dreamscapes & Shadows
Born in the corn-wrapped quiet of the Midwest, Matthew Dye was raised at the crossroads of fire and iron—his father, a preacher; his mother, the daughter of Missouri industry. Faith and factory. Spirit and steel. These polar worlds form the foundation of his art: a surreal, alchemical language spoken in brushstrokes.
Matthew’s work lives in the realm between waking and sleep. His canvases summon lucid dreamscapes, blooming with psychic symbols, occult relics, and strange, emotional topographies. Each piece is a meditation, a portal, a psychic excavation of the mythic and the mystical. He doesn't just paint what he imagines—he paints what he’s seen in those hypnagogic, half-lit states where the universe hums and speaks.
Trained as a graphic designer and illustrator, Matthew spent over a decade crafting visuals for luxury brands, city governments, and independent publications. But his true calling lies in the rituals of oil, canvas, and intuition. He draws influence from sci-fi pulps, 20th-century horror posters, Dada dream logic, Appalachian landscapes, and the uncanny poetry of everyday life.
From the skeletal grin of a neon mummy to the contemplative silence of a phrenology head surrounded by fruit, Matthew’s pieces are layered with both playfulness and existential gravity. He is as comfortable painting cosmic altars of radiant geometry as he is rendering cracked tombstones of forgotten knowledge. Sometimes it’s candy-colored chaos. Sometimes it's quiet dread. But always—always—it’s personal.
His work has appeared in Chattanooga’s AVA Gallery and across public visual campaigns in the Southeast. Through his shop, MatthewDyeArt.com, he shares prints and originals with collectors who crave the weird, the witchy, and the wildly introspective.
Why buy his art?
Because it isn’t decoration—it’s divination. It’s emotion in oil. It’s a haunted hymn from a childhood spent staring into cornfields, wondering if angels or monsters would walk out next.
