- NEW LOCATION - 450 Harrison Ave. / 29 Thayer St. Boston, MA 02118 T 617 357 7177
Artist's Reception: Friday, October 23 / 6 - 8PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 7th @ 2PM
NEW Gallery Hours: Wednesdays to Saturday / 11 to 5PM Sunday / 12 - 5PM &, of course, by appointment
Sams�n is pleased to present the 1st Boston solo exhibition of Matthew Rich titled IRE & ICE from October 23rd - December 5th.
�I want to find the civilized side of the line between me and you. I want to be as responsive as I can be without losing my identity. I want to maintain a dialogue with and also separately of and by others, without me. These works are informed by my desire to be here but also be transparent and not here. This is my show and I am proud of it but it will not work without you. Engaging with an artwork requires belief. Exercising this belief, a viewer imprints the work with a particular place and time, compressing it into a dense nugget able to be held or chewed or passed along.
In the work, the distinction between support, surface and mark is removed. That colored shape is also that part of the surface. There is no behind the scenes. There isn�t a secondary set of structures or materials providing support. That said, the work is not completely flat. The two-dimensionality in these pieces is compromised but in an integral way. Their literal three-dimensionality is evidence of how they are made. Physical space is equated with truth because it provides the ability to see. Truth is transparency and it in turn builds faith. Faith expands time, time allows for balance and balance is function and the world must function.
One is a dead end, but both never stop. So what is this show? In short: in and out, single and multiple, intention and accident, refined and crappy, 2d and 3d, this and that, this & this & this & this &. IRE and the ICE are stand-ins on either side of the &.
Some parts of this have been done before while others have not. This is an example of a balance that I am very happy with as it leaves me unique while depending on others. This seems both healthy and realistic and an excellent model for a great many experiences." --- Matthew Rich, 10/09
Matthew Rich was born and raised in Boston. Currently, Rich maintains a studio in the South End, lives in Jamaica Plain and teaches at Northeastern University. He is a graduate of Brown University and received his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. Matthew has had solo exhibitions at Project Row Houses (Houston, TX), devening projects + editions (Chicago, IL) and the Suburban in Oak Park, IL. His work was reviewed in the summer 2009 issue of ArtForum. This past summer Matthew spent a month on an artist residency in Iceland and a month teaching study-abroad in Ireland.
