NYAB Event - Matt Buck “(A)Part”

Matt Buck “(A)Part”

Last Rites Gallery

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The Gallery presents (A)PART, new work by Matt Buck, in what will be his first solo show at the gallery and will feature 5 paintings and 3 drawings. Buck’s body of work centers on portraits of regality dressed in Reformation era costume, disassembling at the head and neck to perhaps question what truly makes us who we are. The portraits in (A)PART are of ostentatiously dressed royalty of the English court, exquisitely adorned with gold and jewel accouterments, ornate robes and forlorn expressions. Buck’s vivid palette creates a symphony of color further accentuated by backlit backgrounds full of subtle motion made present by generous brushstrokes. As a piece of these figures painlessly detach, their interiors are revealed to contain copious bouquets of roses representing the frivolity of the trivial and impermanence of life. Accompanying the fragmented sitters are varied winged creatures such as the bee, hummingbird and butterfly, all symbolizing various interpretations of the cycle of life. The human being is called out as a biological game causing many questions to arise about personal choices and reflections. What is obtained is always at a cost. What is given up as a result? Do such actions project who we are to the outside world, or do such follies further push us away from our true selves? Buck’s series calls for us to question what we need and do not need to keep true to ourselves.

“The major theme of (A)PART is severance. Things that were once part of a whole are now disassembled, like an organic jigsaw puzzle, so that the viewer may reflect on the nature of the individual components.” – Matt Buck