McHenry County College is thrilled to host a Visiting Artist Talk + Artist Reception for Matt Irie’s solo exhibition, Recent Jams b/w Fits & Starts.

Artist Talk & Reception: Wednesday, November 20
2:30 p.m. — Artist Talk in the Luecht Auditorium, B170 | In-person and presented virtually on Zoom: https://mchenrycc.zoom.us/s/92118215412
3:30 p.m. — Reception in Gallery One, A212x

Exhibition:
November 18 – December 13, 2024
McHenry County College | Galleries One & Two
8900 U.S. Highway 14, Crystal Lake, IL 60012

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ARTIST STATEMENT
The work in this exhibition is split between recent work and older pieces. Fits & Starts in Gallery Two brings together four paintings, each of which either marks the end of a series or the start of one that was never realized. Recent Jams in Gallery One is a new body of work that evolved directly from a previous one. After making a series of paintings comprised of layering seemingly scribbled marks made out of drips of house paint collaged on panel, I decided to zoom in on the chaos. However, rather than painstakingly copying from source material such as naïve drawings and abstract gestures, the recent work is improvised, action/reaction. Where the gestural paintings interrogated the space between the real and the simulated, the recent work hones in on exploring the formal compositional elements of abstraction.

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BIO
Matt Irie received his MFA from Northwestern University, Evanston (2002). Irie completed a permanent commission for the Chicago Public Libraries in 2005. He participated in the Luleá Art Biennial, Luleá, Sweden (2009), and was included in Double Take, a public exhibition of site-specific sculptural works funded by The Public Art Fund at MetroTech, Brooklyn, NY (2010). In 2011, he had solo exhibitions at The Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, WI, and Ebersmoore Gallery, Chicago, IL. In 2012 & 2013, Irie was included in two-person exhibitions at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, TX, and Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL. Most recently, Irie’s work was included in a two-person exhibition at Left Field Gallery, Los Osos, CA (2020), Arresting Gestures, a solo exhibition at the Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL (2021), and Some of All, a solo exhibition at Cleaner Gallery & Projects, Chicago, IL (2023). For more information about Irie, visit www.mattirie.com and his Instagram page @stiffwinds.

IMAGE CREDIT: Matt Irie, Damp January (detail), 2023, Collaged acrylic latex on panel

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