American contemporary artist
Matt Magee is an American contemporary artist who is best known for his minimal abstract geometric paintings, sculptures, prints, assemblages, murals and photographs. He was born in Paris, France in 1961 and moved from there to Tripoli, Libya and then to London. He moved to Brooklyn in 1984 to attend Pratt Institute for an MFA after completing a BA in Art History at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. He maintained a studio on New York City until 2012 and currently lives in Phoenix, AZ.
Over a career spanning more than four decades, Magee has experimented widely with abstract and conceptual art practices. Magee’s compositions are organizations of shapes that have been informed by personal history, numerology, and language. Re-purposing a variety of found and collected media characterizes his sculpture and collage while his paintings explore language symbolically with an emphasis on repetition and reiteration and nods to art historical precedents.
Magee's father, a geologist and archaeologist, took him on trips through the Southwest where he collected small objects along the way that later informed his art practices. As a young adult he worked on a seismic truck in Laredo, TX and recorded vibrations sent into the earth to determine underlying geologic formations. Later, Magee was the chief photo archivist for the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Throughout his life, he has established ways of collecting that now inform his compositions.
Magee’s painting style is minimal in concept, but his brushstrokes are expressive. Within these conceptual spreadsheets, abacuses, and hieroglyphics are reminders of the artist’s hand. His visual language relates to early hard-edge abstraction and finds inspiration in contemporary scientific, ecological, and technological ideas.
He is represented by Richard Levy Gallery in Albuquerque, NM; Hiram Butler Gallery in Houston, TX; Eagle Gallery in London; Inde/Jacobs Gallery in Marfa, TX; David Hall Fine Art in Wellesley, MA; and Mission Projects in Chicago.
Magee was the 2017 Arlene and Mort Scult Award winner, the 2007 Josef and Anni Albers Foundation resident fellow, and winner of the Board of Trustees Award from the Silvermine Arts Center. He was also a 1991 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient. His work has been exhibited worldwide.
Awards.
Awards
References.
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