Blog Dead

I didn't get the movie deal or the book deal. Alas.
I can still be Twittered and Instagrammed.
Representation through Project4 in Washington, DC.
Your Pal,
Matthew

Reviews You Can Use

Here's a rundown of reviews for the Salon of Little Deaths at Hamiltonian Gallery:

Washington City Paper
Examiner.com
JW Smith - wrote a think piece for Hamiltonian's website.
What Weekly
I review-bombed Victoria Fu's CityPaper review as well as her Centerfold Artist podcast. AND you should see her show at Flashpoint because it is spellbinding. You'll think a lot about pictorial language, language of film, language of images...I could go on but won't. Just see it for yourself.

Mini-sode

The Salon of Little Deaths is going strong. Above is an action shot of the show provided by Jerry Truong. There are more action shots if you follow the link. In case you missed the talk on May 14th, you may view it here.

There is a strange cowboy painting ready for the Bridgette Mayer show. The humidity is presenting a lot of varnish problems for it, so that should be interesting. I'll post an image of it soon-ish.

Also this drawing is headed up north to the Painting Center for a show called "Working It Out". The opening is on Thursday, June 20, 2013.

Speeeed Metal Updatz

Many things to report, dear Internet. We have to go fast...

1. I am Mr. April over at Trop Magazine's Centerfold Artist. I bear my soul through a questionnaire while Zack and Annette (your tropcast hosts) crack wise about my answers like a couple of wiseacres.

2. I contributed a vessel to the Alchemical Vessels show/fundraiser at Joan Hisaoka Gallery. Reception on Friday, April 26th. If you purchase a ticket to the fundraiser, you get to walk off with a bowl of your choosing after the show closes. Simple as that.

3. I am part of the FLEX show at the Flats at Atlas organized and curated by Mike Iacavone, Billy Friebele, Jonathan Monaghan, and Calder Brannock. The reception is April 27th from 7-10pm.

4. I am finishing up work for the Salon of Little Deaths show at Hamiltonian from May 11-June 15. Press releases and printed matter forthcoming.

5. I am making a small work for an upcoming benefit show at Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philly with sales benefiting a totally worthy organization called Ready, Willing, and Able. The reception is on July 12th.

5a. This benefit show immediately follows my pal Mark Brosseau's show at that selfsame gallery.

My Bad

I just wanted to let you know that despite the MPA: Small Stories show having closed over the weekend, here's the review in case you missed it) the Obstructions show is still up at AU's Katzen Art Center until the 17th.

I mistakenly thought that it closed on March 2nd. Which was last Saturday. Which was a mistake. Which is now corrected.

Volver de Jorge or something like that

Just wanted to tip you off to a review by Mark Jenkins of the Washington Post of the show at McLean Project for the Arts. It is up for another couple of weeks incidentally. In this review you will find a singling out of yours truly, and special attention paid to my "magnum opus" (reviewer's words not mine) the Passion of St. George (pictured above).

M'kay, well I spent last week stretching and priming canvases, and started one new painting. I did a bunch of drawing as well in preparation for the final push until May's show at Hamiltonian. There will be a sort of members only sort of sneak preview/studio visit in late April through Hamiltonain too. I'll let you know more about that as it develops.

Journaling and Acne Moutnain

I am in the studio painting these landscapes that I made up. They collectively describe a terrain around a mountain made of drapery not surprisingly called Drapery Mountain. The function of a mountain made of drapery comes from looking at a Domenico Veneziano painting and deciding that the mountains look like drapery. Or at least the way that drapery was more or less represented at that time. Plus that was apparently a technique of people like Giovanni Di Paolo (and presumably Domenico Veneziano) where he would -according to Kenneth Clark- bring rocks into the studio to serve as models for mountains. I always wondered how G di P's mountains ended up looking like pimples rising from a gridded field. This is how I guess. But don't worry. I am not going to make any paintings featuring "pimple mountain". That would be...um...well I am a little nauseous thinking about it.

This is the general topography, or topology, or "topocosm" since it is the more lovely word, of the paintings  right now. There are a lot of pieces and parts going into the work. In addition to mountains of leaves and drapery, I am now putting these "parks" into the landscapes where the walkways are designed after Persian tiles. I am also working hard right now at jamming the construction and readability of that conventional Claude/Poussin landscape mode to represent a sensation of looking at images, and having more than one perceptual experience at once. I just finished a painting like that yesterday. It is really strange. Bear with me on that one.