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Opening Reception October 28, 6-8 p.m.
“Tour and Trance” will be Matt Blackwell’s fourth solo show at the Edward Thorp
Gallery and will include recent mixed media paintings, sculpture and drawings.
Blackwell’s latest “Tour” takes us through various landscapes including the states of
Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Appalachia, Georgia, New Mexico and onto
Northern Europe. The “Trance” part of the title alludes to the often-isolated figures that
appear in transfixed reflection in these cryptically crafted landscape settings.
Blackwell’s works are populated with such characters as baseball coaches, stoic bank
tellers, mid-western farmers, buffalo-headed men, and biblical characters. Blackwell sets
free this cast of players by a manner of methods at times raw, spontaneous, funny, tragic,
acerbic and absurd.
In this new series of work, themes of independence, worship, Bohemia, farm labor, myth,
infused with indictments on politics and our pre-occupation with technology. Further
illustrated by titles that are inspired by lyrics from Tom Waits, Po Boy, Roly Salley with
also some Flemish proverbs included in association for good measure.
In Blackwell’s vision of America inspiration ranges from R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural
cartoon, Alfred Jarrys Ubu with some assists from Max Beckman and Eric Heckls
expressionist nudes. Articulating a radical, folksy sentiment, with humor and power,
poising literary and visual means. Using a powerfully material paint handling at times
offhand with the perceptive use of collage elements, they are often executed with a clear
intention but also allowing the process of free association to inform the narrative, drawing
on his knowledge of folk music, Americana, art history and politics as a intuitive resource
of cultural reference.
The artist works with various media, oil on linen, paper, sheet metal, caulk and wood to
create a vast range of works always probing and questioning in which all characters are
vying for position on the proverbial soap box to tell their story.
Matthew Blackwell has lived in Maine, New York State and Brooklyn.
Gallery Hours: 11am to 6pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Email: edwardthorpgallery@gmail.com
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