2014 Catalogue Archive

Matt Sheridan Smith subverts the traditional use of pattern as decorative background in his Pattern Portraits by allowing the imagery to exist alone in the foreground. Smith hopes these graphic elements might become an alternate form of portraiture. To make works like Pattern Portrait (Cyclist), Smith lays photocopies down on acrylic medium, allows them to dry, and then rubs away part of the image, leaving traces of the paper and ink. Smith’s process resembles how wallpaper is hung (a domestic source of patterns), and his rubbing gives the feel of a space clouded and worn away by memories. Smith’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; and Western Bridge, Seattle. He has been in group shows at NJ MoCA, Wickatunk; Sculpture Center, Long Island City; and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, among others.