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| moderndallas.net Special “Eye” to Watch June Mattingly // contributing art writer Michael Christopher Matson “Exploring the Past in New Light” Native Texan, Dallasite Christopher just received his BFA in printmaking and sculpture from SMU on a scholarship as an honor student. In his brief career as a practicing artist he has shown his ornately surfaced, space identifying sophisticated sculptures considering the fact they’re without a recognizable subject matter and constructed from such a rudimentary material as metal and occasionally industrial-based but subtle neon attachments. “My use of neon creates an interesting juxtaposition. The ‘coolness’ of the metal in concert with warm neon lighting facilitates an interesting partnership.” |
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| Ascension. sheet metal. 8'. 2010 |
| Group-wise he’s been included at the Euclid Art House sponsored by Ro2, Craighead- Green Gallery, Dallas Museum for Contemporary Art and the Old Jail Center in Albany. Curators sufficiently impressed include him: Joan Davidow, Jordan Roth and Clarissa Terranova – not bad for starters! “My current body of work draws from the various Maya cultures and most specifically the steles of the highland and lowland Maya cultures. The scale and presence produced by these masterpieces of antiquity could turn-on any artist.” For true inspiration, Christopher visited the magnificent cobblestone Hieroglyphic Staircase in Copan, Honduras, (I have too) the famous Mayan ruins in the cultural center of the Mayan civilization. |
| Michael Christopher Matson with And then it Happened. 5' sheet metal. 2010 |
| The destruction and Copan Ruinas. 2010 |
| “The iconography of my sculptures originates from my drawings. I ‘see’ the potentialities and further their emergence. It remains essentially drawing and my choice of tools facilitates a rich complex surface abundant in textual information. It is rough-melted metal emerging from the circle of fire.” |
| My experience with neon commenced when I received an apprenticeship glassblowing position with the family responsible for the construction of the Pegasus in Dallas. Typical of young artists these days Michael has a “passion” for exploring materials and processes: ceramics, intaglio, large format film, glass blowing, metalworking, neon and bronze casting. “I feel blessed to live a life of artistic discovery.” |