Open your mind and formerly perceived concepts of reality to allow Matthew Blackwell to take you on a journey of his world of reflection. From the streets of downtown LA, he captures the inner pulse of the city.
From the plumbing, to the most intense conversations we encounter a new life form: The urban congestion and architecture unwind on his canvases. His lines are like guardrails that hold focus and never lose our attention. With the use of these inter-courses, artist Blackwell creates his paintings in seven to twenty layers; thusly, there seems to be a narrative, but if one tries to follow it, one finds a different realm. It is as if we have dropped into the middle of his brain, being the hustle and bustle of a Grand Central Station and a telephone company distribution network, where all the conversations are speaking your language. You understand it; however they do not verbally interrupt your encounter with his paintings.
His works are truly organic which have an edge that challenges the observer, connecting the viewer to his world, including the multi-galaxies are beyond our solar system. Some have been compared his art to graffiti, but his art has a more intellectual primal voice.
In the tradition of Masters such as Matisse, Picabia, Braque and Modigliani, Blackwell has reduced his art to the essence without the conventional trappings. Some of his paintings look so dimensional, the viewer can see them with and without 3-D glasses and receive the same experience. In all his paintings there is a pulse and sometimes this rhythm is profoundly loud, while other times his lines sooth your core.
Artist Blackwell’s latest works are figurative. It is as if his organic paintings are like x rays of his cast of characters. They bespeak our time and deliver a message. There is the grotesque to the purely amazing. Of course there are some that make one feel very uncomfortable, but everyone makes you react; sometimes it is out of nervous laughter.
In the tradition of Daumier, to the illustrators of Mad and the New Yorker magazines, his social commentary puts up a mirror to our society. These characters could each have their own television series or together they would make a fantastic movie similar to Mad Money with more dimensions.
More than his non-figurative art, these works shock and give the viewer those moments that have believed to be the truth. Maybe it is an affirmation of how this artist has slipped into a viewer’s conscientious? On the other hand, Ted Bauer perceives these works as Socio-Political, being their messages. Of course, the decision must be made by the viewer, being, if the works by artist Matthew Blackwell, which I feel has broken barriers in art, has granted me the expertise to justify him as a truly original.
Review by Chevalier Tony Clark
www.clarkfinearts.com