Bockley Gallery is pleased to announce its first exhibit by Milwaukee artist Colin Matthes. Instructional and Flood Resistant Work presents paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Ten works from Essential Knowledge, a series of drawings on paper illustrating basic skills for success in challenging situations, are included in the exhibition. Additionally the artist has constructed flood resistant luxury objects; foam noodle floats and a provisional raft are used to ensure the survival of his oil on canvas paintings during times of rising sea levels.

Matthes takes language and imagery from motivational posters, advertising, Boy Scout handbooks, commerce, and other rhetorical sources to consider our contemporary condition living in late-stage capitalism and climate change. These works are timely, eco-poetic, and darkly humorous.

Essential Knowledge: Making a Boat, 2012-14, 23 x 17 inches, ink on paper

Essential Knowledge: Starting a Fire, 2012-14, 23 x 17 inches, ink on paper

Roadtrip, 2012, ink and acrylic on paper, 40.5 x 48 inches

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Matthes’ practice includes painting, drawing, installation, zine and graphic production, and public art projects. Matthes works collectively with Justseeds, a network of twenty-six artists living in the United States, Canada, and Mexico that runs a print collective, contributes graphics to social movements, and co-publishes books. As an individual artist, Matthes has exhibited across Europe and the United States. Solo exhibitions include Artspace Leguit, Antwerp, Belgium and Igloo.

“Instructional and Flood Resistant Work”
May 13, 2015 – June 13, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 14, 6 to 9 pm
Bockley Gallery
Minneapolis, MN

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS AND ADVICE

101 maple with clear finish

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Standard Profile: 101
Thin Profile: 102
Type: Standard Gallery Frame
Type: Thin Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: maple wood frame with clear lacquer finish
Purchasing Options: joined wood frame with splines
Framing Advice: fitting gallery frames

“Contemporary printmaking is extremely diverse,” stated Jane Glaubinger, curator of prints. “Some artists reinterpret traditional printmaking techniques, while others experiment with new technologies or print on unusual materials. The large size of paper and presses allow prints to rival the scale of paintings that dominate the field of vision.”While some artists look inward to personal issues for inspiration, others look at the larger world. Fresh Prints: The Nineties to Now offers a glimpse of the multitude of prints produced in the last two and a half decades that depict images of many themes including: political and social upheaval, feminism, ecology and AIDS. None of these prints have previously been exhibited at the museum. Artists featured in this exhibition utilize a variety of printmaking techniques such as: lithography, etching, engraving, linoleum cut, drypoint, screenprint and woodcut to express their artistic vision. Whether by well- known artists or newcomers, these prints offer visual stimulation and provocative ideas.

The last twenty-five years have been filled with political and social turmoil and strife while computer technology and rapid communication networks promote a more global perspective. One of the prints featured in this exhibition, Annette Lemieux’s Stolen Faces, acknowledges the incessant hostilities and the ubiquity of the photograph in our experience of the modern world. This largescale lithograph, measuring 32-by-90 inches, presents the pixelated faces of anonymous soldiers so that they resemble people on television news shows who wish to hide their identities. A war photograph is represented on the right panel as the image would be seen on a black-and-white television while on the left is its color television counterpart. The central panel of the triptych, an image that has three panels placed next to each other, further dramatizes the anonymity of war with an image of only the pixelated heads of soldiers, disembodied, as if vaporized by the technologies of war, photography and electronic mass media.

Suit Shopping: An Engraved Narrative, 2000-2002. Andrew Raftery (American, b. 1962). Engraving; 37.8 x 52.8 cm. Gift of friends in memory of Ann Bassett and Tom Johnson 2003.15. © Courtesy of the Artist and Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY.

Born, 2002. Kiki Smith (American, b. 1954). Color lithograph; 172.9 x 142.5 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro 2004.34.

Fresh Prints: The Nineties to Now
Sun, 03/22/2015 to Sun, 07/26/2015
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery
Cleveland Museum of Art

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS AND ADVICE

GALLERY FRAMES

Standard Profile: 101 and 106
Thin Profile: 102 and  114
Type: Standard Gallery Frame & Thin Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: maple wood frame with black, white, & clear finishes
Purchasing Option: joined wood frame with matching splines
Framing Advice: fitting gallery frames