The Studio
The Artifact Candle is developed by artist and designer Matthew Wesley Bowers in his Los Angeles studio. The studio’s work spans lighting, sculpture, and paintings on canvas and concrete panels, all driven by an interest in creating pieces with power, iconic presence, and mystery. Materials and process are central to this philosophy, guiding both experimentation and refinement.
With the candle series, the goal is to produce objects that are functional while also carrying a sense of narrative and history. The process itself becomes part of the story, shaping the final form and presence of each piece. The studio is ultimately a place where art and design meet through close attention to material and form.
About The Candles
The Artifact Candle is the result of more than a decade of exploration into how art and utility can live together in a single object. Each vessel was carefully engineered to appear delicate and thin, like something unearthed from another time, while remaining durable enough for everyday use. This balance demanded countless experiments with concrete blends, wax formulations, and burning performance to create something sculptural yet functional.
The inspiration also runs deeper. Years ago, in a small bookstore in Kyoto, Matthew discovered an old rice-paper volume filled with hundreds of hanko stamps—marks once used in Japan as signatures, their origins reaching back to Mesopotamia. Stripped of context, the symbols had become timeless, fragments of meaning untethered from history. This fascination with lost symbolism runs through the Artifact Candle, where each vessel becomes both artifact and object, embodying the tension between fragility and endurance.
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About the Artist
Matthew Wesley Bowers is a Los Angeles–based visual artist originally from Charleston, South Carolina, where he studied in the College of Charleston Arts program. His work spans painting, sculpture, technology, and architectural design, always seeking to transcend the boundaries between the natural and human-made worlds. Concrete has become one of his defining mediums—at once elemental and industrial, ancient and modern.
Symbolism is central to his practice. Typography, code, and lost signs of civilization weave into his work, exploring what stories objects and markings tell when their original meaning has been forgotten. Across painting, sculpture, and design, Matthew’s work engages in dialogue with relics, artifacts, and the enduring legacies of human progress, reframing them in ways that feel both futuristic and timeless.
