Apr 9

Apr 9 In Dialogue and Art by Matt Jones

Art, Culture, Fashion and Design, Music, Dj/Producer, Creative People

In Conversation with Matt Jones: Painting, Connectivity, and the Creative Engine of New York

Anonymous Gallery exhibits some of today's most exciting contemporary artists who have influenced popular culture, design, fashion, and the urban environment.

In a powerful curatorial debut, Peter Makebish brings his exhibition In Dialogue to Anonymous Gallery @ Collective Hardware, pairing four generations of painters whose studio practices share bold continuity and intrinsic similarities: Ross Bleckner with Matt Jones; Kenny Scharf with Kadar Brock; Donald Baechler with Bill Saylor; Ouattara Watts with Dustin Yellin; John Newsom with Brendan Cass; and Sante D'Orazio with Hermann Nitsch.

In this ambitious exhibition, romantic notions of idealism are expressed through a multi-generational mix of artistic genres and mediums—painting, drawing, photography, and film. The show draws inspiration from the world of music and DJ culture especially, where different genres of songs are mixed together to produce compelling new sounds and each track is transformed and "exhibited" in a new way. Similarly, In Dialogue connects works of art so that contrasts are highlighted but the composition of each piece is intensified, creating a conversation about the whole.

Meet Matt Jones

Matt Jones was born and raised in Rochester, NY, and attended Cooper Union School of Art and the Yale Summer School of Painting. He has been living and working in Brooklyn since 2004.

What are your greatest inspirations?

Other painters and paintings, the lives of artists, nature, astronomy, spiritual teachings, comic books and video games, love, movies, music, and philosophy—all of it is inspiring if one is willing.

How does working in New York inspire your creativity?

The skyline was in the distance as we came over a hill on the New Jersey Turnpike. I was with my mom, headed to check out Cooper Union, and I was smacked in the face by the overwhelming and convincing power of that moment. I had to live in New York City.

Things happen here. Riding my bike to my studio in the morning, racing the sun through the badly maintained streets of Bushwick, getting an overly sweetened coffee from the roach coach on the corner of Johnson and Varick, the quiet of the studio, the promise of endless numbers of openings in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side, and the hope for meaningful connectivity with my peers and the world I participate in—all of it is inspiring and absolutely necessary fuel to run the creative engine. It all happens here like nowhere else.

What's the state of the art world today in your opinion?

The art world seems wide open. The white boxes are normal—they feel normal. There's something new happening, an energy that isn't as describable as it's been in the past. It's a very exciting time that feels very old, fundamental, primal, and clearly present. The painters I admire and love are continuing to expand their practices, and the dialogue is getting richer and richer. This moment is very good.

Other artists you admire?

Sigmar Polke – Reinvents painting every couple of years. He's got balls.

Martin Kippenberger – Because it was all painting, everything, his whole artistic life. Uncompromising. When I saw his Jacqueline: The paintings Pablo couldn't paint anymore exhibition at Metro Pictures in 2000, it was the most influential painting show I've ever seen.

Wendy White – Is progressing her practice at an incredible rate. More than once she's made a painting that I wish I'd thought of first.

Kadar Brock & Mark Gibson – Their quest for meaning and understanding is very important.

John Newsom – Is one of the most giving people I've ever met. He's become my art world big brother. His paintings are bold, passionate, and powerful.

Julian Schnabel – His book CVJ changed my life.

Tauba Auerbach & RH Quaytman – Their work in the Whitney Biennial knocked me out.

Thomas Ruff – It's a pity he's not a painter. He makes the most painterly photographs I've ever seen and is fearless.

Favorite websites?

Like most, I spend a shit-ton of time on Facebook. I have almost 1,000,000 points on Ikariam.com (a massively multiplayer online game). I've been making a lot of books lately—I'm actually fascinated by how easy and successfully one can make them now.