Matthew Langley's art influences

Fields of Mars, 2009
Acrylic and paper on panel, 9" x 12"
Courtesy of Blank Space Gallery, New York

I've come across Matthew Langley's work on several blogs and enjoy looking at it on his website. One needs to spend some time with each piece as they reveal themselves over time-a mark here, a change in color and texture there. He incorporates a wonderful use of line -the grid, of course- with drawn lines of color and surface, along with a mindful use of the edge. I find the work playful with a rich painter's vocabulary. I am looking forward to seeing his work in January.

Matthew Langley / Heejo Kim, Blank Space, Chelsea, NY
January 14 - February 2nd

Supercrush 9 x12 acrylic and paper on panel 2009

Sunshine Playroom, 2009 Acrylic and paper on panel, 9" x 12"


For Blinky, 2009 Acrylic and paper on panel, 9" x 12"

Here are Matthew's picks:

Jasper Johns
Robert Ryman
Mark Rothko
Robert Rauschenberg
Anselm Keifer
Egon Schiele
Ellsworth Kelly
Barnett Newman
A R Penck
Phillip Guston
Matisse
Neil Jenney (the "bad paintings" in particular)
Frank Stella (the early black paintings)

Sunflower oil on canvas, 60" x 50"Collection; Ernst and Young

On Developing New Images.

The artworks come from a series of divergent strategies. One of building and extending - the other of reducing and minimizing. These disparate approaches are not a way to impose meanings on the work, but can be viewed as a metaphoric crossroads. This crossroads is about extending the relationship of these different approaches, while at the same time allowing the viewer the liberty of time for further reading of the work. The image making that comes from this strategic foundation will be clear, concise and rational, while at the same time allowing for a sense of community and/or contemplation to develop in and around the artworks. The artworks are not linear narratives, this allows the element of time to be stretched or compressed to accommodate the viewer. This flexibility to time as well as environment allows the artwork to reveal itself in slower and calmer ways than an artwork that is based only on the relationship of drama and detail of the forms presented inside of it, while allowing those with a more compressed time line to react to the base elements of the composition and painterliness of the overall approach. This open ended approach is central to the artworks I create and allows them to be developed with a non-specific exactness.
February 2009

Super Nature, 2008 Acrylic on paper, 18" x 15"

On Names.
Titles have become critical to my work. Primarily they re-establish a connection to the visible world and hopefully trigger a series of associations and ideas that are related between the artwork and the connotation in the viewers awareness. I avoid the descriptive and ordered approach (blue, or number 12, etc.) as well as using “untitled”. I view titles as an approach to open the viewer to a thought process that may influence the subject at hand. This could be viewed as a shorthanded poetry or similar device that allows further thought about or in connection to the artworks. January 2009