Matthew Mahler “UP & DOWN”

Sardine

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UP & DOWN, Matthew Mahler’s second solo show with SARDINE, investigates consumer culture’s relationship to the art object with an installation of fifteen paintings on grid wall. The overt use of the grid has played an important role in the structure of painting for over a century. Here, Mahler uses the format of a commercial grid wall, to display his paintings. The significance is double fold: first as a nod to its historical impact in art and secondly to draw attention to the commodification of the art object. The repeated motif within the paintings, a design inspired by the sole of a commonly collected Air Jordan 7 basketball sneaker is employed as a means of connecting a more common, accessible culture to the rarefied nature of painting. The palette of these paintings takes cues from the bright colors of athletic sneakers by blending to create unique gradients, reminiscent of those recognized in Josef Alber’s series Homage to the Square.

Matthew Mahler’s work generally critiques contemporary western culture through subject and process. His work has been exhibited nationally, including shows at Sardine, Centotto, and Brooklyn Fire Proof, Brooklyn; Denny Gallery, Lu Magnus, and Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC; THE REINSTITUTE, Baltimore, MD; and Klapper Hall Gallery, CUNY Queens College, Flushing, NY. In 2010, Mahler co-founded Small Black Door, an experimental art space out of a basement in his neighborhood in Queens. He received an MFA from CUNY Queens College and lives in Ridgewood, New York.