Matt Coombs, MFA 2016

Thesis Exhibition: March 16 – 19, 2016

Reception: Friday, March 18, 6 – 8pm

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 11am – 6pm


yellow painting
Water Feature, 2016
Oil, Acrylic, Spray Enamel, Collage, on Vinyl, 54” x 112”

painting
Wait, 2015
Oil, Acrylic, Oil Pastel, Collage, Canvas, Wood, 80” x 66”


The aim of my most recent work is to formalize my preoccupation with American landscape painting, safety, and climate intervention.  I create images and objects that incorporate bricolage, text, trompe l’oeil painting, and gestural abstraction.   In my paintings and drawings I depict animals, imagined technological devices, and the physical elements to investigate my own desire to both control and create more nature.  I use various techniques found throughout the rich history of painting, and allow them to repeatedly surface as casual parodies of their own power of illusion.  I am interested in the plasticity of reality itself and the absurdity inherent in the attempt to transcend natural systems.  The images I create function as placeholders for truth and history.  

All images courtesy the artist.