Matthew Best

My next show, opening next week at Las Manos Gallery (http://www.lasmanosgallery.com/), Chicago. Four new paintings (http://mjbest.squarespace.com/paintings/paintings-2008-to-present/) will be on display. They are part of a new series I have been working on, a meditation on balance; physical and mental.

Half Moon IV, 2011. 18 by 18 inches. Acrylic on panel

     This series of paintings aims to use the vocabulary of painting to
find new ways of depicting the body, or more accurately, being a body;
one that is subject to internal and external forces, desire, pain and
pleasure. Shapes and colors within the paintings alternate between
conflict and unity, push and pull, support and instability. The
inspiration for this work has been my study of yoga which has deepened
and expanded my awareness of my body, both positive and negative. The
title of the series is an English translation of a Sanskrit name of a
yoga position, Ardha Chandrasana, a challenging pose in which the body
is precariously balanced on one arm and leg of one side of the body
while the other half of the body is extended upward and outward. It
requires great mental focus and physical strength to maintain the
pose, if one of these elements is missing, you fall. These paintings
strive to achieve this same balance. The body is represented
metaphorically as an awkward and complex structure.  Varying weights
of color, shape and line balance against one another; removal of any
one element would result in the collapse of the painting. The body is
also depicted as a particular kind of space. This space exists
in-between the micro and macro, natural and artificial and of the
interior (the mind) and exterior (the body and/or landscape). Layers
alternate between an opacity that obscures and a revealing
translucency.  Some shapes are completely hidden; other shapes are
more deeply embedded in the picture plane, exposed by scrapped and
sanded the painting down.  In this way, the conflicting spaces are
collapsed into one another.

Half Moon III, 2011. 18 by 18 inches. Acrylic on panel

A collection of images; some finished paintings, a few sketches, the images that are floating around in my head.

Houseplant, Paris, March 2011.

Half Moon I. 18 by 18 inches. Acrylic on panel

1st entry in Suburban Foraging Project for 2011. March 2011. Skunk Cabbage, Manchester, CT.

Drawing after Soutine, Paris. March 2011

Half Moon II. 18 by 18 inches. Acrylic on panel

Le Lapin, after Soutine. March 2011



http://www.bcaonline.org/visualarts.html

This show will contain the full version of my Suburban Foraging in Public Spaces project. The entire project has never been displayed in one space before. It documents the beginnings of the project in 2006-2007 to 2010. I have never seen the whole thing displayed so I am very excited to see the results!

Pawpaws with Harmonograph, 2007. Colored pencil and harmonograph on paper

Installation detail from "Open Air", Nave Gallery, Somerville MA. August 2009

My first show of 2011,  New Works on Paper, opens Friday, March 4 at Las Manos Gallery in Chicago, IL (http://www.lasmanosgallery.com/). I will have four new drawings in the show.

The other artists in the show are: John Mosher,  Ginny Sykes, Lindsey Clark-Ryan, Ben Rosenburg, Michael McGuire, Eric Garcia, Mark Pease, and Christine Wuenschel.

Some of the work before shipping.

One of the pieces to be included in the show.

January marks my second year in my new, or formerly new studio in Hartford, CT. Below are two details of new drawings, the first pieces new pieces for the new year. They are only details because they aren't quite finished, or at least I'm not sure if they are finished or not. My unofficial New Year's Resolution has been to do larger pieces (the second image is a portion of a 22 by 30 drawing) and to use a wider range of  colors (in this case, green, which I tend to avoid....)

While the transparent qualities of ink have been interesting to explore, I'm starting to incorporate opaque elements into the drawings. You can see this above in the green areas and below in the white lines.

I recently added images of drawings from late 2010 in the works on paper section, they can be seen here: http://mjbest.squarespace.com/works-on-paper/works-on-paper/

As an update, here is an image of one of the finished drawings.