Untitled (Floral) , 2011, oil on canvas, 100 by 88 in.
Survey of disaster, war and death during the first twenty-five years of my life , 2005-2006
beta pictoris is pleased to announce the opening of VARIATIONS, New York based artist Matt Wycoff’s
first solo exhibition with the gallery.
Over the past ten years Wycoff’s work has covered a wide range of conceptual, stylistic and material approaches. VARIATIONS brings together four major works from this period, two text pieces from 2006 - 2007 and two
large-scale abstract paintings from 2011.
The works on view are drawn from what appear to be two visually and conceptually distinct bodies of work.
The exhibition is less about the differences between the works, however, and more about the experience of
the viewer as they find the underlying themes that tie them together.
In classical music the term variation has come to mean the repetition of a musical theme with modifications
of melody, rhythm or harmony. Wycoff offers his variations in a similar spirit. His main themes of identity
and perception appear and reappear throughout the exhibition as they shift and change in relation to ideas
such as poetry, beauty, order, abstraction, death, disaster, monumentality, color and time. These shadings allow
for a depth of experiences. The works question the distance between the personal and the universal, confuse notions
of chaos and order and use the art historical meanings of expressionism, minimalism, pop and conceptual art as tools
for building a new aesthetic framework.
As an artist, Wycoff is both drawn toward and skeptical of earlier artistic attempts at universalism and deeply informed
by discussions that emerged in the 1970s, 80s and 90s such as the blurring of boundaries between painting, sculpture and installation, and dialogues about deconstruction or pluralism. Wycoff’s VARIATIONS ask the viewer to reconsider their preconceptions about artistic style, and focus on the ways in which form and content build structures of meaning.
beta pictoris gallery 2411 Second Avenue North Birmingham, AL 35203
