Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2012, “24 kt.”, CRAM International
2010, “Werk, Werk, Werk”, CRAM International
2010, “Re-creation”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2007, “Flowering Trees”, Jordan Art Gallery
2006, “Amateur Celebrities”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2006, "Pages from the Old Master Coloring Book", Strega Café Art Under Glass
2005, “Cartoonism”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2003, “Interference”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2002, “Portrait, Landscape, Still-life”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2001, "Pablo da Vinci", comic strip performance in various locations on Toronto sidewalks
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2012-13, CT-International Print Bienalle, Taller Cultural “Luis Diaz Oduardo”, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
2012, Major Hill Park Canada Day Celebration, Ottawa, mural painting performance
2011, “This Is Paradise”, MoCCA, curated by Rae Johnson and Herb Tookey
2011, “Archiving the Eighties”, Toronto Free Gallery, curated by Henrjeta Mece
2008, “new!”, Rodman Hall Art Centre, curated by Marcie Bronson and Steve Remus
2008, “Manifesto”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2007, "James Street Night of Art", organized by the St. Catharines and Area Arts Council
2006, "James Street Night of Art", organized by the St. Catharines and Area Arts Council
2006, "Art to Ease Crappy Conversation", Loop Gallery
2006, "The Dirty Show", Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2005, "The Blood Must Continue to Flow", MoCCA, curated by Istvan Kantor
2005, "Jizos for Peace", various locations, Nagasaki, Japan, organized by Amidha Monastary, Portland, OR
2005, "Art Under Glass: Ritual at the Cafe", Strega Café , St. Catharines, ON
2005, "Garden City", St. Catharines City Hall, St. Catharines, ON
2004, “The Johnny Canuck Niagara Ego Exhibition”, Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2003, “Lilli-Putting”, Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2002, “Small Works”, The Jordan Gallery, Jordan, ON
2002, “Regional Artists”, The Pumphouse Gallery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
2001, "The $7 Portrait Show", Penny Arcade
2001, "Buskerfest", Nathan Phillips Square, portait painting performance
2000, “The Green Show”, Money House
1999, "Canadian Painters of the 19th and 20th Centuries", Grimsby Public Art Gallery, Grimsby, ON
Artist's Statement to accompany the exhibition, Werk Werk Werk*, at CRAM International, October 2010
The Life Artistic in Seven Blurbs & One Footnote
Matt Harley’s paintings and drawings combine traditional materials and subjects with contemporary strategies and concerns. Approximately one third of his artistic practice currently seeks meaningful ways to reconfigure painting and drawing as pseudo-Duchampian, site-specific/site-variable installations.
The son of a freelance cartoonist, Matt Harley is understandably drawn to the cartoon world. His first art lesson (at age two-and-a-half, delivered by his brother, aged four) was nothing less than a wall-sized explanation of human visual perception in the phenomenal world, realized with a single black crayon on a white wall, and described in terms of three-point perspective and the observable properties of light acting in relation to the mathematically predictable yet spontaneously sublime Daffy Duck Hotel.[1]
Matt Harley does not like the term “artistic practice” preferring to think that he practiced during his art college years and now simply makes stuff that may or may not be art.
Although he knew at age three that he would one day attend the Ontario College of Art (1975-78), Matt Harley has always disliked getting paint on his fingers; a foible that led, shortly after the beginning Kindergarten and the his first finger-painting session(1958), to the first of countless moments of doubt regarding the probability of actually learning anything at school.
Matt Harley failed grade 12 Art, even though his assignments received consistent A’s and A+’s. The reason given: finishing most of the projects at home on the weekend. As further punishment for this diligence, the teacher confiscated the completed projects, putting them on permanent display in the art room for years afterwards as sterling examples of how best to complete the assignments.
Despite daily efforts to come to terms with whether art is now a branch of philosophy or the other way around, Matt Harley’s dreams and aspirations still include several variations on the theme of climbing to the ultimate pinnacle of the art-world pyramid (as well as somehow getting his studio to begin to resemble those seen occasionally in celebrity-culture magazines).
Matt Harley is a Montrealer who just never had the opportunity of living in Montreal.
[1] This life altering, early childhood ‘art lesson’ is also notable for having included his older brother’s demonstrations of several specific lighting effects applied to a cross-corporate assortment of seven iconic, animated-cartoon characters. Fifty-five years later, Matt Harley clearly recalls this cartoon pantheon as being: Walter Lanz’s Chilly Willy; MGM’s Tom (without Jerry) & Droopy Dog (dutifully operating the hotel elevator); Walt Disney’s Goofy, Donald Duck, & Daisy Duck; and of course Warner Bros.’ Daffy Duck. Paired in his brother’s mural with Daisy Duck for whatever reason, Matt Harley also clearly recalls thinking at the time how, as an artistic decision, the ‘unusual’ pairing of Daisy with Daffy, instead of Donald, was strangely unsettling leaving an unexplainably scandalous impression.
The Life Artistic in Seven Blurbs & One Footnote
Matt Harley’s paintings and drawings combine traditional materials and subjects with contemporary strategies and concerns. Approximately one third of his artistic practice currently seeks meaningful ways to reconfigure painting and drawing as pseudo-Duchampian, site-specific/site-variable installations.
The son of a freelance cartoonist, Matt Harley is understandably drawn to the cartoon world. His first art lesson (at age two-and-a-half, delivered by his brother, aged four) was nothing less than a wall-sized explanation of human visual perception in the phenomenal world, realized with a single black crayon on a white wall, and described in terms of three-point perspective and the observable properties of light acting in relation to the mathematically predictable yet spontaneously sublime Daffy Duck Hotel.[1]
Matt Harley does not like the term “artistic practice” preferring to think that he practiced during his art college years and now simply makes stuff that may or may not be art.
Although he knew at age three that he would one day attend the Ontario College of Art (1975-78), Matt Harley has always disliked getting paint on his fingers; a foible that led, shortly after the beginning Kindergarten and the his first finger-painting session(1958), to the first of countless moments of doubt regarding the probability of actually learning anything at school.
Matt Harley failed grade 12 Art, even though his assignments received consistent A’s and A+’s. The reason given: finishing most of the projects at home on the weekend. As further punishment for this diligence, the teacher confiscated the completed projects, putting them on permanent display in the art room for years afterwards as sterling examples of how best to complete the assignments.
Despite daily efforts to come to terms with whether art is now a branch of philosophy or the other way around, Matt Harley’s dreams and aspirations still include several variations on the theme of climbing to the ultimate pinnacle of the art-world pyramid (as well as somehow getting his studio to begin to resemble those seen occasionally in celebrity-culture magazines).
Matt Harley is a Montrealer who just never had the opportunity of living in Montreal.
[1] This life altering, early childhood ‘art lesson’ is also notable for having included his older brother’s demonstrations of several specific lighting effects applied to a cross-corporate assortment of seven iconic, animated-cartoon characters. Fifty-five years later, Matt Harley clearly recalls this cartoon pantheon as being: Walter Lanz’s Chilly Willy; MGM’s Tom (without Jerry) & Droopy Dog (dutifully operating the hotel elevator); Walt Disney’s Goofy, Donald Duck, & Daisy Duck; and of course Warner Bros.’ Daffy Duck. Paired in his brother’s mural with Daisy Duck for whatever reason, Matt Harley also clearly recalls thinking at the time how, as an artistic decision, the ‘unusual’ pairing of Daisy with Daffy, instead of Donald, was strangely unsettling leaving an unexplainably scandalous impression.
Artist's Statement to accompany the exhibition, Re-creation, at the Niagara Artists Centre, October 2010
Re: Re-creation
There is a room in my apartment, no doubt intended as the dining room, which I like to call the drawing room. The room that has been re-created in the gallery is a fairly accurate representation of the room as it exists. Beyond the door, the flat planes have been faithfully reproduced, but the artworks beyond the door usually live near or in the drawing room itself.
The action of hanging artworks on an essentially muralized surface references an archaic sense of the verb ‘paint’ (hanging tapestries in a room was said to be ‘painting the room’). Included amongst the artworks that I’ve hung are two pieces by my late friends, Dennis Lukas, and Lisa Brown. The closet in which their work will be found has been left intentionally unfinished in honour of their untimely deaths. There are also two works by anonymous artists; a paint-by-number purchased at a flea market in 1982 and a Hindu religious icon purchased in 1994. All other artworks, both finished and unfinished, are by myself from various points in my career, past, present, and future.
In the course of this project, I definitely experienced “I’ll just…” syndrome. This syndrome is common when people discuss the timeframe involved with the tasks that comprise other people’s jobs. As in: “I’ll just build a room in the gallery using drywall and metal studs, and then I’ll just reproduce all of the woodwork using plywood, and then I’ll just paint the whole thing in tromp l'eoil...”
In this way, it is possible to waltz, unsuspecting, into a variety of Herculean tasks.
It makes sense at this point to thank, in the order that the debts were incurred: Susan Kyle, for ferrying me about before she fell ill (you’re better! yay!); Rich Hart, for service above and beyond, etc. (thanks man); the staff at NAC, for their extreme patience (sorry guys); and Shirley Madill, for the loan of some materials and the days off to deploy them. (this project totally would not have happened without you) Finally, I would also like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for assisting with the exhibition.
The exhibition is composed of three artworks. Beside the water cooler, is the second version of The Delphic Oracle’s Last Words. The first version (the fire version) is on display at CRAM. For those who can’t decipher either version, the text reads as follows: ‘Tell the world, the glorious temple has fallen. Apollo’s springs are dry. The world no longer has a prophet.’
For the second piece, I offer a sculptural representation of ‘Aum’, said to be the four-element sound; ‘ah’, the beginning, ‘ooh’, the sustaining and ‘mm’, the passing away. Of course, these three are underpinned by silence, thus making the four elements.
And finally, the eponymous installation work: Re-creation; 2010; dimensions variable; metal studs, drywall, plywood, screws, paint, wood, t-shirts, silk, and artworks.
Re: Re-creation
There is a room in my apartment, no doubt intended as the dining room, which I like to call the drawing room. The room that has been re-created in the gallery is a fairly accurate representation of the room as it exists. Beyond the door, the flat planes have been faithfully reproduced, but the artworks beyond the door usually live near or in the drawing room itself.
The action of hanging artworks on an essentially muralized surface references an archaic sense of the verb ‘paint’ (hanging tapestries in a room was said to be ‘painting the room’). Included amongst the artworks that I’ve hung are two pieces by my late friends, Dennis Lukas, and Lisa Brown. The closet in which their work will be found has been left intentionally unfinished in honour of their untimely deaths. There are also two works by anonymous artists; a paint-by-number purchased at a flea market in 1982 and a Hindu religious icon purchased in 1994. All other artworks, both finished and unfinished, are by myself from various points in my career, past, present, and future.
In the course of this project, I definitely experienced “I’ll just…” syndrome. This syndrome is common when people discuss the timeframe involved with the tasks that comprise other people’s jobs. As in: “I’ll just build a room in the gallery using drywall and metal studs, and then I’ll just reproduce all of the woodwork using plywood, and then I’ll just paint the whole thing in tromp l'eoil...”
In this way, it is possible to waltz, unsuspecting, into a variety of Herculean tasks.
It makes sense at this point to thank, in the order that the debts were incurred: Susan Kyle, for ferrying me about before she fell ill (you’re better! yay!); Rich Hart, for service above and beyond, etc. (thanks man); the staff at NAC, for their extreme patience (sorry guys); and Shirley Madill, for the loan of some materials and the days off to deploy them. (this project totally would not have happened without you) Finally, I would also like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for assisting with the exhibition.
The exhibition is composed of three artworks. Beside the water cooler, is the second version of The Delphic Oracle’s Last Words. The first version (the fire version) is on display at CRAM. For those who can’t decipher either version, the text reads as follows: ‘Tell the world, the glorious temple has fallen. Apollo’s springs are dry. The world no longer has a prophet.’
For the second piece, I offer a sculptural representation of ‘Aum’, said to be the four-element sound; ‘ah’, the beginning, ‘ooh’, the sustaining and ‘mm’, the passing away. Of course, these three are underpinned by silence, thus making the four elements.
And finally, the eponymous installation work: Re-creation; 2010; dimensions variable; metal studs, drywall, plywood, screws, paint, wood, t-shirts, silk, and artworks.
My Manufesto; 2008; ink on paper, digitally assembled; 43.2 x 27.9 cm (17 x 11 inches); exhibited, 2008, Niagara Artists’ Company
