Matt Monk exhibits new work in College Hall

Matt worked on the exhibition from May to October 2017, a period that began with an artist’s residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson and concluded with a three-month sabbatical. 

“My work explores ideas related to painting as a recombinant language system, specifically as it addresses relationships between parts and wholes. Different elements of the work might be seen as letters combined into words, words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into stories. Various groupings within this work might be seen as using distinct vocabularies or syntaxes, yet each grouping can be seen as emanating from a singular voice,” Matt explains in his artist’s statement. 

He often works with discarded or found materials, which are often decayed, worn, eroded, weathered, murky, humble, and imperfect. Matt seeks to “uncover meaning in the meaningless and value in the worthless.”

“My work is the result of cumulative layers of additive and subtractive processes including painting, gluing, scraping, sanding, tearing, erasing, correcting and patching. A rich and complex history of each piece is rendered evident through its accretion of these unexpected materials and varied processes,” he adds.

Painting As Language is currently on display at VCFA’s College Hall Gallery until January 20, 2018. There will be a public reception on December 1 from 4-8 p.m. during the upcoming Montpelier Art Walk.