Matt Heide wants you to touch his art, scrape your fingers across its rough surfaces, play with it a bit.

The Edmonton industrial artist produces Concrete Tactile Paintings, created to stimulate the sense of vision and touch.He combines the texture and depth of sculpture with the color and graphic impact of paint and printed work.

Heide uses a proprietary concrete formula with compression and tensile strength five times higher than average construction grade concrete mixes. The color is in the mix, not a topical stain or paint.

The double-sided works can be hung or displayed from either side. Heide says he thinks of the technique “as a modern and evolved form of bas-relief. Much of my work has it’s roots in Donatello’s “rilievo stiacciato” which is a shallow form of bas-relief.” Above: Images from Praise Father Sun, 31 x 28″;  Below: from RWB No. 178, 27 1/2 x 19″

Matt Heide on Behance, here.