Matt Sesow at Rebus Works
Sesow is screaming the primal scream from the walls. Though untrained in the art of painting, Matt Sesow is not a brutarian or an outsider, he is simply an artist, a visionary. His "outsider" status is only applicable to the fact that he does not operate within the usual business of art circles. Most of his sales are made through his website; http://www.sesow.com/.
While some of his images might be considered brutal or brutish in the same was as, say, Francis Bacon, they are only real life with the beauty secrets stripped away, the cover girl make-up stuffed back into society’s compacts. They are the skeletons, out of the closet, with the raw meat still attached.
Sesow may very well be the most important artist working today. His paintings are explosions of color. Punk rock energy paired with the symbolism of alienation dressed in the finery of a rainbow. As he says, he is trying to create something that is funny, political and chaotic. In that quest he has been successful on a grand scale.
It is Saturday afternoon. I walk into the Rebus Works gallery and I’m greeted by Shonna Greenwell. She reveals that Sesow has been at the top of her wish list since the gallery, located at 301-2 Kinsey Street, Raleigh, NC in the former Honeycutt Grocery building built in 1910, opened. I can see why. To steal a phrase from rocker Dave Edmunds, these paintings are as subtle as a flying mallet, simultaneously raging and calming.
Sesow’s biography is fairly well known. He was born September 10, 1966 in Omaha Nebraska. In 1974, while playing, he was struck by a landing plane. His left arm was severed by the propeller. The arm was reattached but doctors amputated his dominant hand. 1980 saw him travel to Newcastle, England to participate in the disabled Olympics for the US team.
Matt gained a BS degree in software engineering during the years from 1985 to 1988 and began to make drawings. In 1993, after moving to Washington DC, he began painting in oils and making short films. By 1997 Sesow was painting full time.
His show "Carrots and Sticks: bunnies and bullies" will be at the Rebus Works through November, 12 2005. Don’t miss it.
While some of his images might be considered brutal or brutish in the same was as, say, Francis Bacon, they are only real life with the beauty secrets stripped away, the cover girl make-up stuffed back into society’s compacts. They are the skeletons, out of the closet, with the raw meat still attached.
Sesow may very well be the most important artist working today. His paintings are explosions of color. Punk rock energy paired with the symbolism of alienation dressed in the finery of a rainbow. As he says, he is trying to create something that is funny, political and chaotic. In that quest he has been successful on a grand scale.
It is Saturday afternoon. I walk into the Rebus Works gallery and I’m greeted by Shonna Greenwell. She reveals that Sesow has been at the top of her wish list since the gallery, located at 301-2 Kinsey Street, Raleigh, NC in the former Honeycutt Grocery building built in 1910, opened. I can see why. To steal a phrase from rocker Dave Edmunds, these paintings are as subtle as a flying mallet, simultaneously raging and calming.
Sesow’s biography is fairly well known. He was born September 10, 1966 in Omaha Nebraska. In 1974, while playing, he was struck by a landing plane. His left arm was severed by the propeller. The arm was reattached but doctors amputated his dominant hand. 1980 saw him travel to Newcastle, England to participate in the disabled Olympics for the US team.
Matt gained a BS degree in software engineering during the years from 1985 to 1988 and began to make drawings. In 1993, after moving to Washington DC, he began painting in oils and making short films. By 1997 Sesow was painting full time.
His show "Carrots and Sticks: bunnies and bullies" will be at the Rebus Works through November, 12 2005. Don’t miss it.
posted by le monde moderne at 4:19 AM
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