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The Landing is pleased to present “Remain In Light,” a solo exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Matt Phillips.

Phillips divides his paintings into geometric sections with by-hand, near-perfect lines that are either straight or curved. These divisions create smaller vectors that sometimes contain a recognizable geometric shape—a triangle, rectangle, rhomboid or half-moon—and other times, something less familiar: the form that occurs, for example, when a triangle and a circle partly overlap. The ground within these smaller vectors is covered by a different sort of line: an irregular one that brings to mind mountain ranges in aerial photographs, or the fissures that find their way across dry lake beds. There is a vibrant sense of movement to these markings, like the waves of heat rising off the desert floor. The interplay between the sharp, geometric sections that break up the original rectangle of each canvas and the organic delineations within these smaller sections is central to the project of these works. There, within the defined, one finds the organic—the flowing.

At times, the works call to mind origami, not only because their canvas texture and intricate shading can feel reminiscent of crumpled, then flattened paper, but also because origami animals—the crane, for example—hold both the sharp folds of the overall structure and the implied movement of the natural form invoked. The greater pattern of each painting brings to mind hand-stitched quilts, too, which are similarly determined by near-perfect lines that nonetheless show the mark of the human hand—that tiny wavering that reminds the viewer that a heartbeat animates the body.

Each painting is built with colors that occur in nature: rose, midnight, sky, split pea, clay. Some of these works—“Marianas” and “Mollusk” especially—have the ocean’s vibrant coloration. Others are dominated by the ochers, roses and reds that occur in the desert. The paint itself is mixed with a fine silica sand, which is largely composed of quartz, and its hint of desert texture can be felt. Deserts, too, make light apparent: they are the great display-places of the sun. And light is central to the experience of these canvases as well. Those with a desert palette have a light-seen-through-tissue paper quality, while those in ocean hues carry the darker luminosity of stained glass.

There are moments of figuration in the grouping; in the large work “Marianas,” the billowing depths of the Marianas Trench open downwards, shot through with points of light. In “Mollusk,” a shell’s swirl repeats, broken and complicated by varying geometric planes. The show takes its name from the large work “Remain In Light,” in which a central tangerine-colored section divides a less vibrant ground. In this work, and in “Marianas,” there is a sense of a choice—the painter’s, or the viewer’s—between what is light, or vibrant, and the depths, or doldrums, that are also available. This theme seems especially prescient for works made in a time of quarantine—a time in which what is light must be chosen actively and with intention, if it is to be found.

Artist's Statement

The other night I was driving home. I was at a stop light when I turned on the radio. A poet was being interviewed on a talk show. He said, “In poetry, form is a way of conserving energy.” At first I thought he was referring to saving the energy of the writer. It was late and I was tired. Then it occurred to me that he might have meant a poem’s form is a scaffolding to hold the power and energy of words without diminishing their strength. I preferred this version.

In my paintings, I search for an essential shape, one that exists within a rectangular canvas. As I work, a visual form slowly emerges. I have given this image a rather strange to-do list — be honest, surprise, measure time, embrace the strange, show touch, pulse like rhythm and unfold like melody. I also ask it to fill the space between where words end and vision begins, to not merely tolerate but celebrate mystery and, of course, to remind us of the light.

3/30/21

Bio

Matt Phillips is a painter living in Brooklyn, NY. His works often employ fundamental elements of painting: simple shapes, modulated values and color relationships. These rather rudimentary components are combined and remixed to produce unexpected outcomes. Color, shape, mark and form engage one another in both strange and familiar ways, becoming tense, humorous, quirky and ultimately meaningful.

Matt Phillips has had solo exhibitions at Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA; Direktorenhaus Museum, Berlin, Germany; Studio d’Arte Raffaelli, Trento, Italy; Devening Projects, Chicago, IL, University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, ME; and Steven Harvey, New York, NY. He has participated in group exhibitions at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Hollis Taggart, New York, NY; Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY; and Ampersand Gallery, Portland, OR. Phillips has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. Phillips is a professor of art at Fashion Institute of Technology (NY, NY).