Matt Bilfield and Andre Veloux “Blurring the Lines”

Krause Gallery

This event has ended.

KRAUSE GALLERY presents Matt Bilfield and Andre Veloux’s 2 person show “Blurring the lines. Both artists want to expand the way their work engages the viewer. While the medium itself encourages spacial interaction, it’s the subject matter that creates an emotional connection through its narrative. One of the many reasons they are drawn to their medium is the challenge of capturing organic emotion in a methodical format while the viewer is forced to blur the lines and look in between.

Matthew Bilfield
Born in New Jersey, raised in Southern California, I quickly came to the realization
after college that selecting a tie to complement my striped shirt wasn’t enough to
satisfy my creative side. So I taught myself graphic design and built a career around it.
In the framework of the television graphics that I create, I noticed that it was always
the image that constantly changes as the viewer watches, inactively. When it comes to
art, my inclination drives me toward creating pieces where the vantage point dictates
the image, in turn activating the viewer. Where the television screen has the plastic
framework as its boundary, I wanted to extend that boundary to the dimensions of the
room itself. My idea was that everyone seeing the art gets to have his or her own unique perspective. I imagined a more active art medium without guidelines and boundaries. Soon I conceived of the platform in which to realize my ultimate union of both graphics and
fine art.

Matt’s two person show “Blurring the Lines” has allowed him to experiment in a way that literally blurs the lines of his medium but not his subject. His spacing is tighter, the colors are more diverse and the resolution is truer which is a contradiction to his title series, but it depends on how you look at it. We all see things in our own way. Matt has allowed us to see exactly what we want in his straightforward approach to the imagery, yet in a very untraditional medium. These small adjustments have allowed him to create subject matter that plays on intimacy, nostalgia and what’s between the lines.

Andre Veloux’s work is focussed on gender equality, and includes iconic portraits of women who are agents of change in society such as Jane Fonda, Lady Gaga, Malala and others, as well as composite portraits made by blending features of different faces to create a single visual. Mostly recently, Veloux’s work has evolved into the Appearance series of which five pieces are included in the Blurring the Lines show at Krause Gallery. The Appearance works tackle issues surrounding the different styles women wear and defend the right to dress as one wishes. The works appeal to men and women equally, but often for different reasons. The thoughts and feelings that are raised when they are seen or touched are undoubtedly revealing of the way modern women are treated for what they choose to wear.
These pixelated works, with a vibrant and consistent colour palette reveal themselves as the viewer steps away from them. The pixels disappear, the lines blur and the image is revealed completely. Yet up close, the experience is completely different, in some way this mimics the way we judge things superficially when our perspective is detached and distant, yet act differently when we look up close and intimately.

His use of Lego as a medium presents a three-dimensional and tactile impression to his audience, allowing viewers the option to touch his pieces, and to question what the sensation means to them. While Veloux’s use of small plastic bricks has static color schemes and structures, the bricks convey movement and therefore also portray the opportunity for constant flux in his artwork, also referring to how our society’s views of women are continually changing.