Matthew Harkleroad
August 1 – 31, 2019
First Thursday: August, 1, 5 – 8pm

My work is about materials, shapes, edges, colors and textures. It is meant to be experienced and enjoyed in a very direct, visceral way, because this is how I make it. My intention is to reveal more than invent, to feel more than think, to allow more than force. I choose media, techniques and marks that feel honest and natural, building surfaces that appeal to my love of patina, accidents and the aesthetics of layered histories. My joy is in the act of responding– What is needed here? What would make this image hum? Sometimes personal or narrative associations arise from this process. But usually the experience is more like smelling a fragrant rose, with a depth of experience that is valuable enough on its own, free of association. Either way is fine.

In this current body of work, I explore a recurring shape that could insinuate a pared down, abstracted figure. I am intrigued by this intuitively created stencil shape, as it allows for a somewhat familiar structure to attach any meaning that arises, while still being conceptually unencumbered, allowing the space in which to feel for that hum.

-Matthew Harkleroad