Floating Coastline

Anasazi Target Practice

Floating Coastline detail

Casper

Artist Statement

Fragmentary Evidence

A survey of paintings and drawings, 1985-2010

The work  in this show  ranges from “Heartland Armada”, a  mixed media drawing on paper , begun at my Canal Street  studio   in New York in 1983 and finished in Oakland two years later, to “Fragmentary Evidence”, a mixed media drawing on panel , started at an artists retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains in 2008 and finished recently in Boulder. In between are industrial grade aerial landscapes , “Casper”, “Cadillac Desert N.A.S”, from the mid 1990’s, and an experiment in light and shadow, “Anasazi Target Practice”, dating from the late 80’s.  The early part of this century is represented  by two  multi-layered oil paintings from the “Richter Scale” series., as well as “Anecdotal Evidence”, a larger oil on canvas overlaid  with a filigree of marker drawing.

I am an artist whose work has functioned, in its various phases, like photography and digital imagery, through aerial perspectives and the breakdown of space. My paintings, drawings, and prints inevitably explore landscape and memory as well as illustrating the impact and intrusion of technology.

John Matlack

Mr. Matlack received a Master’s Degree in Art Practice from the University of California at Berkeley. He has exhibited widely throughout Colorado and the western states including the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, the Denver Art Museum, The Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, the Aspen Center for the Arts and Humanities, the Yellowstone Art Center, the University of California at Davis, the Berkeley Art Center, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. He has received   several awards and grants including the 2000 Dale Djerassi Fellowship, the Neodata Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, and the Boulder Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant.   He has completed several arts residencies, including the Djerassi Resident Artist Program in Woodside , California, and Shark’s Ink, in Lyons, Colorado. He has curated several exhibitions including ”Pure Painting” at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art which won Westword’s   Best of Denver Award. He has worked as artist assistant   to Christo and Jeanne-Claude on many of their temporary art projects, including “The Running Fence Project”. He served on the Board of Directors of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art from 1991-98. Mr. Matlack shows his work at Spark Gallery in Denver. He was   awarded   a second residency at   the Djerassi Program which he completed in January, 2004, as well as   a third residency in January, 2008.    A solo exhibit of Mr. Matlack’s work entitled “Maps” was exhibited at BMOCA early in 2006.

Mr. Matlack’s work appears in many public and private collections, including the Legislative Services Building, Art in Public Places Program, Denver, Co, City of Boulder, Boulder Public Library, The Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Boulder Community Hospital, Foothills Branch, and the Denver Hyatt Convention Center Hotel.

For further information contact John Matlack at (303) 601-5370, email jwmatlack@yahoo.com.