More Possibilities for Distance and Mass, Mathew McConnell

More Possibilities for Distance and Mass
Mathew McConnell
Opening Reception | Friday, January 8th, 2016 | 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Exhibition on view through February 5, 2016
One-Day Workshop | Friday, February 5, 2016 | 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The Jane Hartsook Gallery is pleased to present the New York City solo exhibition debut of Mathew McConnell. An Arkansas-based artist, McConnell is a provocateur, engaging a dialogue of appropriation, originality and authenticity almost entirely outside the purview of the ceramics sphere. A cerebral artist, McConnell’s approach to art is analytical and pragmatic using others art as a catalyst for his own.

“My current investigations are based on the works of other visual artists. Often using a singular form or image as a starting point, I recreate the work with alterations to suit my own compositional needs. The resulting forms vary between what could be mistaken as a facsimile of another artist’s work and an artwork with a source seemingly outside any individual reference.

In the construction of these replicant objects, I sometimes find myself trying to pinpoint the exact moment at which the work becomes more mine than theirs. Sometimes this moment occurs in the mere selection of a form, and at other times it does not occur at all. By careful construction of these simulated, manipulated, exalted, and subverted forms, I find, at the best of times, a means of reconciling the difference between what is an art of someone else’s and what is an art of my own.” – Mathew McConnell

Mathew McConnell (b. 1979, Johnstown, PA) holds an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a BFA from Valdosta State University in Georgia. He has held numerous solo exhibitions and his works have been included in group exhibitions in China, Australia, New Zealand, and in many venues across the United States. In 2012, Mathew was granted an “Emerging Artist” award from the National Council on Education in Ceramic Art. He has also been a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and was Artist in Residence and Guest Lecturer of Contemporary Craft at Unitec in Auckland, New Zealand. His work was recently the subject of a profile in the publication Ceramics: Art and Perception. He is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas, where he oversees the ceramics area.