REVISION
Matthew Winkler
January 24 – March 10, 2024
Pine Island based artist Matthew Winkler presents Revision, a body of work that invites the viewer to reflect on how one experiences the world around them.
ARTIST RECEPTION
Thursday, February 1, 5:30 pm
Artist talk at 6:00 pm. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I make works that reflect on the experience of space and engage with the relationship between perceptual, physical, and pictorial depth. I explore abstraction, the representation of place, the interaction of positive and negative shapes, and light and shadow.
I work with a process of continual revision. Each artwork starts with an experience, an idea, or an image, related to a specific place. Using a combination of photo-collage and painting on paper and canvas I assemble fragments that then become assembled into a larger whole. The process is additive and subtractive and includes editing as well as chance or surprise.
I've chosen the word "revision" for this exhibition, not only because of the repeated editing I use in making the work, but because I think of my art as re-envisioning and reinterpreting visual experience, as an attempt to recapitulate the complex process of how we, as humans see.
The group of medium to large paintings shown are some of the more accumulated and revised works that I've finished recently. The smaller paintings are more provisional and experimental. With the two works in metal, I traced a collage "module" and then had a fabricator laser-cut the form into metal. The metal allows for new play with color, light, shadow and surrounding space. Some information is lost, other information is gained.
I hope you will spend some time with the work. My goal as an artist is that my work might "slow down" time and present to you a new way of seeing and considering the world around you.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Matthew Winkler (b. 1982) is a visual artist working in collage, painting, and sculpture. Matthew is a current Minnesota State Arts Board recipient and has received grant support from the Minnesota State Arts Board (2017) and the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (2015). He earned his MFA in Visual Art from California State University, Long Beach and a BA from Williams College. Teaching art at the college level and in the community are a part of Matthew's career as an artist and he is currently adjunct faculty at St. Mary's University of Minnesota in Winona.
Matthew grew up in New Jersey and lived in Massachusetts and Southern California before relocating to Rochester in 2012. In 2017 he moved to an acreage in Pine Island where he has his studio and lives with his wife and three children (and dog, cat, pony, goats, and chickens).
Matt Winkler is a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.