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Like many younger painters working with abstraction, Matt Connors (American, b. 1973) engages freely with the histories of his medium without depending upon them. His canvases absorb influences from a disparate and evolving roster of artists, as well as writers, filmmakers and musicians to whom the artist looks for inspiration, and this casual porosity is likewise reflected in the formalities of his method. Connors mostly uses raw canvas, often taking rubbings from his studio floor, pouring layers of paint into the fabric like dye, or using one wet painting to imprint another. His paintings are remarkable for the apparent thinness of their surface; paint ends up in them, rather than on them. As such, Connors’ works act as both pictures and objects, registering the surfaces behind or beneath them, as well as those before them—including other paintings and things close at hand in his studio. His paintings inhabit a space in between, taking and offering impressions of their immediate surroundings in time and space, and those more distant. Impressionism is the artist’s first solo museum presentation in the United States, and features a focused selection of extant pieces alongside new work made specifically for the exhibition.
