Matthew Best

It has been a nice, quiet summer, giving me plenty of studio time. Enough time to really experiment and follow the work in unexpected directions. I like to find that balance between control and chaos in the studio, enough control that they work is consistent, but enough chaos that it directs itself to some degree.

The first change I noticed was a shift in space. The normally very flat space I use began to be more sculptural.

Untitled, 2011. 12 by 12 inches, acrylic on panel.

Untitled, 2011. 36 by 36 inches. Acrylic on panel.

These paintings led to the next logical step, a maquette: I visited an artist friend, our conversations seldom fail to inspire me, I think she has the best “eye” of anyone I know. Truly insightful, kind but always willing to constructively criticize. She noticed something in my art that I had also noticed slowly creeping in (but had been avoiding), a sense of space that is different from my older work, a more sculptural space. She verbalized what I had already kind of been thinking, why not turn this into a sculpture?

The images above are my first attempts at sculpture since 1993. I’ve avoided it that long I just don’t think in three dimensions.  A maquette or a sketch might be a better way to describe it, or just playing. It might go somewhere, it might not. This one is made out of ripped up drawings. If this works I’ll move to other materials.

Seen above: on the left, the maquette alone. On the right, the maquette seen with two paintings.

Maquette III, three views. torn paper and ink

Untitled, 2011. 30 by 30 inches. acrylic on canvas

A painting influenced by sculptures that were created in reaction to paintings that in turn influenced a sculpture.

Untitled, 2011. 36 by 36 inches. acrylic on canvas.

I will be donating two paintings to the Art for AIDS benefit in June.  For more information please go to the Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition website: ctaidscoalition.org

All proceeds will benefit The Richard B. Fried Fund for
the Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition, an endowment
administered by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Saturday, June 11, 2011, 7:00 pm
ArtSpace, 555 Asylum St., Hartford

Ticket Information:

Prices start at $50 per person and go
on sale Monday, May 2nd at 10:00 am

The event will feature an open wine bar, tasty
treats from local restaurants, music, an art
show/sale, and a fabulous “art grab” where
each guest will take home an original 12”x12”
canvas contributed by a local artist.

For more information or to buy tickets visit: ctaidscoalition.org

Untitled, 2011. 12 by 12 inches. Acrylic on canvas.

Untitled, 2011. 12 by 12 inches. acrylic on canvas

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