| May 6, 2024 studio e is proud to present In Advance of a Visit, an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by New York-based artist Matt Jones, his first with the gallery. The works in In Advance of a Visit energize the mythical (medieval illumination, dream visions, folklore) through Jones’s attention to the local (old-growth forests, landscape architecture, and communal gardens in Northern Manhattan). An eye hovers in the background, as the poet’s face becomes a landscape, and bats become butterflies, butterfly wings, eyes, windows, the pages of a book. Long since extinguished candles nest under heavy clouds in a Prussian blue sky, the idea of their light lingering, where a broken wrought-iron fence wilts like a flower at the edge of the canvas. The candles are less domestic objects than arboreal entities. The tree stumps are antediluvian beings, their rings expressions of an entire life pulsing against the edge of the pictorial frame. The tree stumps, rooted in thought-feelings of climate catastrophe, erode the art historical assumption of the human subject (and the borders and binaries engendered by it), tendering the possibility of multiple simultaneous perspectives. Recurring symbols are correlated into a dynamic narrative experience. The paintings invite the viewer into each pictorial moment through perspectival instability, narrative ambiguity, and the urgency of the paint handling. There is the promise of story, and yet, the story is not predetermined, it is contingent and alive to the viewer’s presence. Jones has had many one or two person shows including Galerie Jerome Pauchant (Paris), Freight + Volume Gallery (New York), Horton Gallery (Berlin), Castor Gallery (New York), The Richard Massey Foundation (New York), and Bleecker Street Art Club (New York. He has participated multiple art fairs including NADA Miami (The Hole, New York), Spring Break Art Fair (Old School, Brooklyn), Miami Project (Driscoll Babcock, New York) and a solo presentation at Art Brussels (Bodson Gallery, Brussels). His work has been displayed in numerous group shows including Robert Miller (New York), Soy Capitán (Berlin), Olympia (New York), Anonymous (Mexico City & New York), Driscoll Babcock Gallery (New York), ADA Gallery (Richmond, VA), Dorfman Projects (New York), Tibet House (New York), The Varsity (Brooklyn), Galleri Geo (Bergan, Norway), Grey East (East Hampton, NY), The Artbridge Drawing Room (New York), Gildar Gallery (Beverly Hills, CA), Fiebach Minninger (Cologne), Exit Art (New York), and The Hole (New York). He has done performances at Essex Flowers (New York), Anonymous (New York), Artist Space (New York), and Creative Time (New York). Jones attended the Yale University School of Art Summer School of Painting—Norfolk on an Ellen Battell Stoeckel Grant (2001), earned a BFA from Cooper Union (2002), and received an MFA at Hunter College (2021). In 2007 he founded Puppy American, a small independent press which publishes artist books, zines, poetry, and organizes exhibitions, focusing on collaboration. He lives and works in New York City with his partner, young child, and greyhound. March 9, 2024  |
DearFamily,Friends,& Colleagues,I am writing to share that five of my very best paintings are included in Automat's “Ecphoric Wonderland,” curated by Whitson Ramsey, alongside work by new friends and brilliant painters Heather Drayzen and In June Park. The terrific catalog for the exhibition is available to view online for free here. More info and the press release are below. All of us will be in attendance and look forward to seeing you on March 14th! Lots of love, Matt automat collective http://mattjones.studio @mattjonesstudio |
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| Nature rarely uses yellow, 2022 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 in (76.20 x 101.60 cm) |
Ecphoric Wonderland Opening Reception: Thursday, March 14th from 6-9pm Gallery Hours: Saturdays 12-5pm and by appointment March 9, 2024 - April 6, 2024 Ecphoric Wonderland features the work of Heather Drayzen, Matt Jones, and In June Park. This exhibition deals with symbolism, spiritual values, and disorienting realities in dreamlike ways. The paintings in this exhibition stand as symbols and references to the individual who created them and to their viewer. When thinking about what “reality” is in context to painting, is one to read into the painted surface as a new, perceived reality, or can the painting as an object itself be something real? This group of painters explores visual references in a perceived reality through a literal and theoretical painted surface. |
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| A dream in which I birthed my daughter from my mouth, 2022 Oil on canvas 18h x 24 in (45.72 x 60.96 cm) |
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| A monument with three insects and four mushrooms at mid-day, 2021 Oil on canvas 40 x 30 in (101.60 x 76.20 cm) |
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| Self-portrait in ecstasy, 2022 Oil on canvas 16 x 20 in (40.64 x 50.80 cm) |