NYAB Event - Matt Rota "City Of The Dead"

Matt Rota "City Of The Dead"

Last Rites Gallery

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Last Rites Gallery presents City Of The Dead, new works by Matt Rota, in what will be his first solo show at the gallery.

Painting exclusively in watercolor, Matt Rota creates complex and engaging narratives. At first glance, what appear to be serene landscapes become unsettling apparitions as enigmatic details of his compositions unravel. With natural open spaces alongside elements of urban atrophy, his paintings journey through delicate line-work with pristine gradients into fervid textural regions. Yet, apparent even amongst his scenes of chaos and rubble, is an astute handing of paint and expert use of color. With his latest body of work, Rota delves even deeper into themes of societal decay.

“In the City of the Dead, ghosts wander through the rubble of a million battles. All time converges here and specters from ancient battlefields haunt the ruins and cross paths with victims of modern warfare as if there was only ever one war that continues to echo on into infinity.”
-Matt Rota

Matt Rota is an award winning illustrator based in New York and an instructor at institutions that include the School of Visual Art, and The Maryland Institute College of Art. His clients include The New York Times, McSweeney's, Nylon, The Utne Reader, LA Weekly, Russian Esquire, Philadelphia Weekly, The Columbia Journalism Review, Science News, Ninja Tune Records, Time Out Chicago, City magazine, Isthmus, Wax poetics, and other publications. His drawings and prints have been shown in galleries in New York, Hollywood, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Maine, Toronto, and San Salvador. He has received recognition and awards from The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Communication Arts, 3x3 Magazine, Creative Quarterly, and Lurzer’s Int’l Archive. His comics have been anthologized on Top Shelf 2.0, and in Gutter, Rabid Rabbit, and Supertalk.