Outdoor

Matthew Langley

New York, NY

Matthew Langley is an American contemporary artist born in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1963. He is well known for his abstract paintings. He studied at Virginia Commonwealth University, and received his BFA from Corcoran School of Art, Washington DC, in 1985. Titles of the pieces are almost as important as the paintings themselves, for their purpose is to forge connections between the viewers and artworks. The idea is to prepare the viewers and open them to thoughts that could somewhat influence the understanding of the paintings. Inspiration goes from Color Field painting and the works of Morris Louis and Gene Davis, abstraction of Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn, to physical paint-handling of Gerhard Richter. After all the years of being an artist, everyday life is almost enough to drive his work forward. Langley uses drywall taping knives to create a powerful underpainting, which always ends up covered with a more elegant, but lesser expressive layer. Recently, he is interested in the balance between colors and processes, mark makings and fields, scales and relationships, between what is planned and what is improvised. Because of that, the artist is able to create pieces which are interesting on both intellectual and visual level.
His works are included in several public collections, e.g. Ernst and Young, The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction, the Doris Patz Collection at University of Maryland University College, PNC Bank University of Baltimore, and many more.

Wescover creator since 2019