Pairing My Fingernails

Now showing at the Green Bean

matt — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:03:36 +0000

I’ve got a lot of paintings on display right now at the Green Bean Coffeehouse in Seattle. I’m a big fan of the Bean and I am thrilled to be displaying art there. They’re in my neighborhood and really function as a community center. A lot of my friends are involved with the running of the shop and they do a lot of good work in the area. I was scheduled to show art there last fall when the Greenwood arsonist destroyed the Green Bean’s former location on 85th. They reopened this past summer and the local entertainment/car-crash channel took the time to cover it here.

All of my pre-MFA artwork is on display – some 15 paintings in all. Should one be taken with a painting and wish to buy, the Bean gets 50 percent – two good causes (support for the Bean and food for me)! Stop by and check it all out in the Greenwood neighborhood in North Seattle.

8533 Greenwood Avenue North

http://greenbeanrebuild.blogspot.com/

Pairings

matt — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:13:39 +0000

I think I’ve seen this before, where art writers pair artworks in context. Thought I’d take a stab at that little game from some pics I took when I was at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

1. Space

John Singer Sargent murals.

Sculpture suspended, wrapped in plastic. (sorry, didn’t get the name of the artist)

2. Narrative

Ancient Chinese painting on tablet

Kara Walker mural

3. Iconography

Terra cotta icons, 14th century.

A portrait of a philosopher (sorry didn’t get the title/name of artist)

4. Materiality

Closeup of a Van Gogh painting

A large cardboard box wrapped in plastic (there is a lot of construction going on at the museum, so it took me awhile to discern that yes, this is an artwork on display).

Finally, I present this painting by itself, because the question for me seems to be the same throughout art:

Paul Gauguin, D’où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous

Sell! Sell! Sell!

matt — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:43:36 +0000

Not that what I do is done as a business, but selling a painting once in awhile does enable me the time to make more paintings. Never mind the whole “buying art is a financial investment,” I can’t possibly guarantee that. What it is simply is the strongest affirmation you can give to an artist that states you support what they are trying to do with their work – “collecting as an act of faith” as according to painter Ed Knippers. Sales also enable me to do things like pay for art supplies, expenses, and to offset the cost of my MFA program, which I begin at the end of this month.

If you’ve never owned a painting of mine, check out the list below. They are paintings I’ve had for awhile and would love to find a home for, and will take reasonable offers for them. Prices listed are suggested, but at this point I’ll take best offers! Make me an offer by e-mailing matt@matthewwhitney.com. More work is of course viewable on my website www.matthewwhitney.com. If it doesn’t say “SOLD”, it’s available for purchase.

On to the paintings!

Made New, 2008, 30″ x 40″, $500

The Juggler, 18″ x 24″, 2008, $250

Post-Human, 2009, 18″ x 24″, $300

Hidden, 2009, 18″ x 24″, $300

Estrangement: Juggler, 2009, 14″ x 10″, $100

Sick Man, 2010, 15″ x 29″, $350

Ascribe, 2009, 24″ x 30″, $300

Breakfast, 2010, 30″ x 24″, $300

Ideate, 36″ x 36″, $500

Painting at The Round 61

matt — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:22:53 +0000

Tuesday, June 8th, 8pm:

www.theround.org

I’m Giving Away Art

matt — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:37:12 +0000

I’ve taken a large selection of paintings I’ve done over the last five years and made high resolution digital images available for anybody to use for free under the Creative Commons license. They are yours to use, for your computer’s desktop wallpaper, projection, print, CD covers; however you like.

This is a reversal of sorts for me, as I used to ask for small donations for the use of a digital image. What can I say, I’ve had a change of heart. An organization I’ve been involved with over the last couple of years called By/For has been doing this for awhile and it’s a 21st century model of creative distribution that makes a lot of sense to me. It’s a model that has taken shape primarily around music, due to the collapsing 20th century model of heavy handed record labels. Now this morning I read that Seattle gallery Howard House is shutting its doors and this discussion becomes even more resonant.

How can artists make any kind of a financial living from releasing control and giving their work away for free? Here’s an uplifting article on how this can benefit artists. Not that I am doing this simply because I believe I can make any kind of monetary profit, though that would of course be nice. I still have a physical product, the actual artwork, that can be sold. By making images available for free, the chance for exposure becomes greater – the more people see an image the more likely they become familiar with me. Maybe one out of a hundred people becomes interested in purchasing a painting. Maybe it’s one out of a thousand. Or maybe none. That’s OK too, there are greater, more holistic reasons for giving images away.

I’m interested in expanding this model somehow – giving away images in different forms, and I’ll be brainstorming that. Anyway, enjoy the artwork. I’d love to get an e-mail from you if you do use an image, just out of curiosity to see how it might be working and benefiting you. Thanks!

New Painting

matt — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:20:45 +0000

I made this painting, which I titled Dissonant recently as a commission for a friend. I’ve rarely gone into non-representational in my work, but I’m increasingly drawn to the subjectivity of abstraction, and the way in which it can serve as a means to guide one to invisible spaces. Those who are familiar with my work know it’s figurative/narrative. Though in that style of work, I’ve attempted to intentionally break up the negative space, and not just in a cheesy quasi-cubist way (something I’ve been accused of that). Anyway, the more I push into making work that tries to discomfort rather than reinforce, that explores and embraces what we don’t know rather than what we think we know, the use of abstraction becomes more fitting. What I really like to do is to combine the two – placing disembodied figurative elements atop abstract “landscapes” – such as in the painting Worship Show, which is in the portfolio of the website.

This one is oil on canvas, 36″ x 36″. Expect more like this as I explore.

I made a painting worse

matt — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:03:39 +0000

I just had one of my notorious painting moods, and threw a painting long finished back on the easel and reworked it a bit.
This painting, called Ideate, was meant to be darkly whimsical, absurd. I’d been looking at and enjoying the work of neo-expressionist painter Sandro Chia at the time. Looking over it today, I felt like I hadn’t quite accomplished capturing those essences. The application of paint was too dry, metaphorically speaking. I tinkered with it today, and I may tinker with it some more. I think I made it “worse”, but that was intended. I never could reconcile whether I thought this was a good painting in the end, but I will say I like it better now. You may totally disagree. Here are the two versions for comparison.

The updated Ideate, 36″ x 36″

And the previous version.

Showing in Houston

matt — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:21:26 +0000

I have a piece shown above, Estrangement: Sick Man, in a gallery in Houston. There is a reception on Thursday, April 29th.

Visual Arts Alliance
27th Juried Open Exhibition
Juried by Keith Carter

Opening Reception Thursday, April 29, 2010, 6:00-8:00pm

Williams Tower Gallery
2800 Post Oak Blvd.
Houston, TX 77056

http://www.visualartsalliance.org/

The Musician

matt — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:34:55 +0000

A small private commission I recently completed.

Ways of Seeing

matt — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:11:03 +0000

Ways of Seeing by John Berger.

This book took what I learned in my undergrad art history courses, and turned it completely on its head. A fascinating perspective of art and images and what they do to us. I recommend it to anyone, not just people into art.