PRESS RELEASE
Matt Rich: TILT & TABLE
Feb 20 – May 7, 2016
Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas is pleased to announce the opening of TILT & TABLE, an exhibition of new painted paper constructions and gouaches by the San Diego-based artist Matt Rich. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, February 20, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. The exhibition continues through May 7, 2016.
Matt Rich’s paintings are meticulous constructions of paint and paper whose finished forms are inseparable from the material dynamics and working process of their creation. His vibrantly-colored works are crafted from carefully painted, cut and joined pieces of paper. While they are affixed to the wall, occupying the traditional space of painting, the joined paper pieces—abutted, glued and/or layered—refuse to lie flat. This subtle three-dimensionality complicates attempts to triangulate a singular, overall spatial effect. Similarly, Rich’s small-scale gouache paintings are process-based compositions built by layering colors and shapes. The compositions capture irregular forms combined with surprising color combinations that flirt with representation but remain rooted in abstraction and process.
Matt Rich was born in Boston, MA (1976). He received his BA in Visual Arts & History of Art and Architecture from Brown University, Providence, RI (1998), and his MFA in Painting & Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004). He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2010) and was a finalist for the James and Audrey Foster Prize at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 2010. He has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Terra Foundation for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Rich's work has been included in numerous exhibitions in venues such as: Project Row Houses, Houston; devening projects + editions, Chicago; Samson Projects, Boston; Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Zevitas/Marcus, Cottage Home and LACE in Los Angeles; Baer Ridgway Exhibitions in San Francisco; galerie oqbo in Berlin; and DODGE gallery and BravinLee Programs in New York City. His works are in the permanent collections of List Visual Arts Center at MIT, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Art Collection in Boston, and Northeastern University in Boston. His work has been written about in publications including Modern Painters, Artforum, ArtPapers, DMagazine, and The Boston Globe among others.
Holly Johnson Gallery is located at 1845 Levee Street #100; Dallas, Texas 75207. Gallery hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For more information call 214-369-0169, or email info@hollyjohnsongallery.com, or visit www.hollyjohnsongallery.com.