Starting out under the full name Add Fuel to the Fire, he first created a dark yet exuberant visual universe populated by a cast of slimy, eccentric, and joyful creatures, influenced by a variety of interests ranging from video games to comics, animation, sci-fi, designer toys, and urban visual culture.

In 2008, fascinated with the aesthetic possibilities of symmetrical patterning and tessellations, he shortened his moniker to Add Fuel and began redirecting his focus towards working with and reinterpreting the language of traditional tile design, and that of the Portuguese tin-glazed ceramic azulejo in particular. Effortlessly blending these two seemingly irreconcilable visual idioms, his current practice seeks to combine traditional decorative elements with contemporary visual referents into new forms that reveal impressive complexity and masterful attention to detail. If, on the face of it, his work in small and medium-sized tile panels, large-scale stencil and freehand painted murals, and print editions might seem simply a pastiche of classic formalism, a closer inspection rewards the viewer with a chaotic world of unequivocally original motifs and characters brimming with deep emotions.

Creating balance and harmony from symmetrical repetitions, a build-up of layers and techniques of visual illusion such as trompe-l'œil, his multi-layered patterned compositions produce a poetic rhythm that plays with the viewer's perception and the (multiple) possibilities of interpretation. Exploring a wide range of both manual and digital techniques in the fields of drawing, painting, ceramics, and printing, his practice expresses a sophisticated dialogue between the old and the new, between heritage and modernity.

Besides the numerous public art interventions he has been creating in various countries, he has also been showcasing his work in solo and group exhibitions in reputed galleries and museums. Diogo Machado lives and works in Cascais, Portugal

Matt Gondek is a Deconstructive Pop Artist, whose work is possessed with a punk rock spirit, celebrating rebellion and destruction. With a visceral pop color palette and a disarmingly playful tone, he tears down cartoon idols, akin to slaughtering our modern day gods. Born in 1982, his creative voice is rooted in the 90s; as a true conduit of his generation and their potentially pointless search for meaning and purpose amidst a cruel life in a flawed world. He boasts sold out exhibitions in his home of Los Angeles as well as New York, Paris, Bangkok, and Hong Kong.

SOLO EXHIBITS

• Missing Person - November 2022 - Tokyo
• Discipline - February 2022 - Mexico City
• RATS - August 2021 - Los Angeles
• Original Character - April 2021 - New York
• Mood Swings - October 2020 - Paris
• CONTROL - November 2019 - Los Angeles
• Clean Break - April 2019 - Bangkok
• Growing Pains - November 2018 - Hong Kong
• Clean Break - May 2018 - New York
• American Gods - November 2017 - Hong Kong
• Glow in the Dark - September 2017 - Los Angeles
• Unholy Hand - November 2015 - Detroit
• Struggles - April 2015 - Pittsburgh
• Kill 'Em All - September 2014 - Pittsburgh