NYAB Event - Matt Dangler “Grace”

Matt Dangler “Grace”

Last Rites Gallery

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Matt Dangler, in what will be his first solo show at the gallery, will feature seven paintings focusing on his interpretation of “Grace.” In this series, Dangler’s compositions are executed in a multi layer technique motivated by Flemish-Dutch Masters, and feature his whimsically inviting narratives of fantastical creatures and foreign lands. Dangler draws from many wells of inspiration, including Zen Buddhism, Classical Painting, Surrealism and Existentialism.

New to this series is the inclusion of the human figure independent of chimeric offshoots. Dangler’s recognizable hybrid creatures still maintain a strong presence and continue to serve as intrinsic manifestations of the psyche to support the perpetual narratives present in each painting. Grace weaves a tale of a journey we endlessly embark on as human beings. Cognitively, we have the opportunity to evaluate our decisions, which differentiates us greatly from other organisms, yet at the same time, this mental restriction can often hinder us from the raw emotion and true drive of our individual progress or enlightenment. Dangler explains:

“The show explores death and rebirth, both in the physical and spiritual sense… focusing on the inner world of emotions and psychological transformations that occur. I’ve found that through the darker times in life, especially when caving pressure and pain is unbearable, we are given the opportunity to surrender ourselves from an identity with thoughts and ego. Forming too strong of an identity with labels and convincing ourselves that the present moment should be anything other than what it is, will close doors that lead to inner freedom. Rather than living in a mental construction of how things should be, “Grace” comes with living in total acceptance.”

Each painting in this series represents various states of being: flux and balance, decision and indecision, peace and war. The voyage commences with a dark moment common to all life, “loss”, as seen in The Ego Seed and concludes with the natural and harmonious outcomes present in both Balance and Rebirth. With every thought and choice, we may evolve, or we may regress. With each phase, Dangler questions what society and civilization has manifested as essential mental constructs and asks us to just be, so we may all independently journey and reach our own, true form of “Grace”.