Opening for Solo Exhibtion by Matthew Best, "Mighty Real" November 3, 2007

My upcoming solo exhibition "Mighty Real" opens October 29 and runs to December 15 at the Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center on the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College. The show consists of new acrylic and fabric collage paintings.

The opening reception will take place on Saturday, November 3rd from 1 to 3 pm. Otherwise, the gallery is open Monday- Friday 10am to 4pm.

For more information contact the gallery, 703-845-6229

The changeable relationship between the natural and artificial forms the basis of my recent work. The images within my work are meant to function in many ways; first to depict the body or parts of the body, and second to show objects that reference the body in form or function. It is my hope that associations with the body, nature, and decoration make the paintings accessible and inviting, yet somewhat alien. The forms relate to nature, but exaggerations of shape and color make them distinctly unnatural.

Forms within the painting relate interchangeably to the body, jewelry and decorative objects, and botanical forms, using pre-printed textiles as a “found” sketch. My process is about reaction, building and altering the pre-existing pattern to create a new image. I prefer to use traditional toile patterns that contain highly stylized and repetitious depictions of natural forms, which I build up with acrylic paint, pieces of older paintings and other collaged fabric.

My hope for this work is for it to represent a new relationship between the viewer and nature. As people live increasingly in urban and suburban setting, nature has become an adornment for the home and the self. The line between object and self is blurred, substituted with what Susan Sontag called the camp sensibility of “things- being- what –they- are- not” (Sontag 279). The artificial exists as a surrogate for the natural. Nature is slowly being replaced with artificiality disguised to look or function like nature.