Matthew Asling
Matthew Asling’s work is informed by his Assyrian-Australian identity, Assyrian history and his family background of displacement and migration. This history is woven into the fabric of his paintings, with Assyrian Neo-Aramaic script often stitched or ironed into their surfaces. The works are reflections on the notion of home, diaspora and the complexities of belonging.
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Matthew Asling is an Australian Assyrian artist based in Naarm/ Melbourne. Asling employs a range of ready-made materials such as tarpaulin, gauze and burlap, in lieu of the traditional canvas. These materials function as found collage assemblages that emphasise tactility on the surface on the works. Asling’s work is informed by his Assyrian Australian identity, his family history of displacement and migration, and the history of Assyrian genocide and religious persecution. This history of displacement is woven into the fabric of his paintings, with Assyrian Neo-Aramaic script often stitched or ironed into the works. The works are reflections on the notion of home, diaspora and the complexities of belonging.
Asling is the 2023 recipient of the Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship, and will undertake a four-month period of travelling research throughout Europe and the Middle East during the second half of 2025. Asling holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of Arts. His inaugural commercial solo exhibition will be held at Daine Singer in May, concurrently with a solo exhibition in New York. -
Matthew Asling (b.1993 lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia)
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts - Drawing/Printmaking, Victorian College of the Arts, 2019
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Clay Tablets, NADA, New York, USA
2025 Perdésa, Daine Singer, Naarm/Melbourne, AUS
2025 Reesha Basimta (Healing of the Head), Visual Diary, Naarm/Melbourne, AUS
2022 Kasa Marera (The Cup of Bitterness), Shop Betrayal, Naarm/Melbourne, AUS
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Emergent Field, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2025 Melbourne Art Fair, Daine Singer, Naarm/Melbourne, AUS
2024 Good Art Show Vol. 7, M-Arts Space
2024 Visual Diary 1 Year Birthday Anniversary, Visual Diary
2023 D’Shut Art Salon #1, D’Shut
2022 B-SIDE Fundraiser, Blindside, Melbourne, AUS
2019 VCA Graduation Show, VCA, Melbourne, AUS
2019 Majlis Travelling Scholarship Exhibition, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, AUS
2019 Drawing Group Show, VCA Artspace, Melbourne, AUS
2018 DPM Show, VCA Artspace, Melbourne, AUS
2017 Ebb and Flow, VCA Artspace, Melbourne AUS
2017 The Salvation of Contact, 55 Elizabeth St, Melbourne's AUS
Awards
2023 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship, VCA, Melbourne, AUS
2019 Stuart Black Memorial Scholarship, VCA, Melbourne, AUS
