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Matthew Pinney

Teaches at The Art League


Materials, in their many forms, are central to my practice of making art. It is by experimenting with different mediums that I make discoveries that structure images and connect ideas. Each material has its own attributes and political context to contribute: color prints from photographs have geometric and spacial precision, as well as cultural significance; oil paint is very flexible for making shape, color, texture and illusion; aluminum roofing paint reflects the movements and environment of the viewer, but is limited by its color and inability to depict form. I choose to work with these materials because I have responded to them on a personal level; and each of their unique properties allows me to construct my own personal language. This language, or the finished painting, is how I connect to and interact with viewers. With this language between us, I communicate both tactile sensations (like "wet," "soft," "bumpy," "gooey," "smooth") and visual phenomena like reflections and illusions. 


When I choose a photograph that I want to work with, I retake my own pictures of the print under different light. I pay attention to the time of day and the sky, in order to let the color and glare change the image. Further, creases and ripples in the paper also dissolve the dimensional integrity of the original. With every separation from the original -- each new picture I take, every new layer of oil paint, and every addition of a new material not usually used in traditional painting (like aluminum roofing paint) -- there is yet another level of contextual interference. This layering of dimensional separation ultimately succeeds when it interacts and responds to its viewer. By offering many different surfaces, depending on where the viewer is in physical relation to it, both the painting and viewer share responsibility for what is related, seen, and experienced.

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