EXHIBITIONS :

This place called home



12 february - 13 march 2009

Matt Wilson’s current body of work is part of an ongoing project, based upon a collection of transient observations, the landscapes of every day life and the people that call those landscapes home. It delves into the artist’s own history, his formative and current years within his home landscape and in the city he now resides and also, those of distant landscapes both literally and metaphorically he has traveled. A subtle, visually rich character study of what makes us who we are and the places we all inhabit and journey to, a chance to observe those looking outward whilst reflectively an opportunity to gaze inward.

Susan Inglett Gallery


LANDINGS/(CURATED BY ERNESTO CAIVANO)

07 January - 05 February 2005

"Landscapes are culture before they are nature; constructs of the imagination projected…but it should also be acknowledged that once a certain idea of landscape, a myth, a vision, establishes itself in an actual place, it has a peculiar way of muddling categories, of making metaphors more real than their references; of becoming, in fact, part of the scenery." —Simon Schama, from Landscape and Memory.
"Landings" examines the work of a group of artists who explore the relationship between culture, nature, and representation. The artists in this exhibition lay claim to landscape as metaphor by revealing an internalized or invented subject matter. Whether referencing Flemish renaissance, folk/outsider art, modernism or Asian traditions of scenic renditions, the themes of landscapes are freely appropriated as a construct of the mind, a psychic proposition, and a reflection of obsessions. This show will focus on works that reveal a degree of intimacy, either directly with the viewer and/or as part of the process within the practice of each.
Artists in the exhibition include Russell Crotty, Henry Darger, Benjamin Degen, Kirsten Deirup, Lansing-Dreiden, Marcel Dzama, Inka Essenhigh, Hope Gangloff, William Kentridge, Blaze Lamper, Yuri Masnyj, Julie Mehretu, Paul Noble, Jockum Nordstrom, Fred Tomaselli, Luc Tuymans, Anton Vojacek, Matthew Wilson, Dustin Yellin and Yelena Yemchuk.

31 Grand Gallery


23 November— 22 December 2002
Matt Wilson - BrightonPier, Opening Reception Saturday, November 23, 7-10pm

AWARDS :


INTERNATIONAL COLOR AWARDS 2007
Honorary distinction

AMERICAN PHOTGRAPHY 22 2006
Distinction

WRITINGS :


A discovery, Matt Wilson


Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire
Paris photo 2009

At different times of art history and especially during periods of art mutation, there is always a creator to seize again the fundamental parameters and specific procedures to impose his/her work. This certitude is confirmed by Matt Wilson’s colour prints.
Born British, he could be seen as the successor of the New Color New Works school, the colour being so essential in the immediate seduction of his images. But it is also true that the limited size of his prints, from the photograph tradition, invites us to an intimate reading of his little forms perfectly composed. If Matt Wilson borrows his subjects from the daily life, his pictures are the opposite of the European school of banal/ordinary.
Technical parameters such as depth of field, back lighting, background light without any flash, are used in each photograph for an encounter which could be the beginning of an adventure, a friendship or another human event. Each likely encounter, with a place or with a person, is reinforced by the caption, always going with the peculiar image or series to arouse our imaginary. Photographed by Matt Wilson, every place – road, improbable area or residence – seems charged with personal history.
The series mark the special moments of these encounters, but all the images are produced to be seen individually, without the serial habit. However, they are all part of a same vision.
In the very sensual coloured palate of Wilson, there is a closeness to the subjects Debbie Flemming Caffery knew how to catch with her coal blacks. One can feel a familiarity with Alec Soth’s practice, without the programmatic efficiency of Magnum style, that is to say, with a lightness which exists out of any tactic, with the modesty of a Great.

Christian Gattinoni

"This place called home"


Feb 12th - March 13th 2009

In looking at these images I am struck by both the romance and truth of them, they have an ineffable quality that nudges me gently to appropriate them as if they were my own memories, in this sense they can almost be seen as paintings yet they defy that idea at the same stroke, or rather click of the shutter. These are real moments, captured not imagined beforehand, they are expressions of a poetic sensibility, part of a search, a series of observations of nature and human nature, they deny formal academic rules and serve to take us on a journey, not solely in the sense of a journey travelled but also the expression of an inner journey. Perhaps the romance and the search is for beauty, to let us escape the sometime harshness of life, or show us an optimistic moment within a bleak landscape.
There is a reserve in this romance, in this work, it manifests itself in visual quietness, one not wanting to interrupt or break up a scene, it is not a lack of engagement but perhaps a different kind of portraiture, consider it in the same way a hand written letter, tells us of its author, this is a quiet and subtle thing that needs to be treasured and lived with, re-read, and pondered over, allowing the power of what it conveys to live,
The emotion that radiates from these images, these thoughts if you will, sits between two poles which are far apart but linked. In so much of the work there is a visual dichotomy, a portrait of a man with his back to us taken with so much obvious reverence and love yet we are denied, a beautiful landscape of rich blues and grays entices us but pushes us back when we realize it is taken from a moving car, the reflection that drew us in like a random brush stroke stops our gaze and leads back to the corner where the curve of the road sits, beautiful dogs surround a man on the street, the animals coats observed immediately bring to mind parallels with a history of English formal portrait painting yet here the photographer keeps the viewer back behind an invisible boundary, We are allowed in but not allowed to break into the scene, its an encouragement to pause and enjoy, to allow me to reflect something shared and intimate, a journey within Matt Wilson’s home.

Hugo Cariss