Matt Connors
at Cherry and Martin

Matt Connors, Framed reverse Bottom (Reds) (2015). Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Cherry and Martin.

That color field painting’s adjacent volumetrics can still yield compelling dividends seems the major thesis of Matt Connors’ current show at Cherry and Martin. Throughout, the artist is looking for a certain ratio—golden, gridded or otherwise—but almost always rectangular or nearly-squared formations which play off of each other and feature vividly hued colors offset by their washed-out brethren.

When it works, it, well, works. As in Triangle (2015), with its isolated, textured shape floating in an orange suspension tank under the light and weight of a vivid yellow atmosphere. Elsewhere, Framed reverse Bottom (Reds) (2015) contains smudgy plumes, which read as watercolored brush marks or mold spores bursting from saturated decay. An odd, untitled sculpture sits in the middle gallery: a pedestal topped by 8-10 folded bolts of colored tissue paper—these ARE NOT souvenirs.

Connors’ repeated, simple matrices and subsequent riffing toe abstraction’s fine line between the joy of inchoate subjective experience and out-and-out boredom. Within that context, each deviation of the Husky pencil style lines that delineate his vivid volumes become a subtle event. Like rare bursts of life out of the endless flatness of a desert landscape.

Framed reverse Bottom (Reds) runs from May 9–June 13, 2015 at Cherry and Martin (2712 S La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90034).

Aaron Horst is a writer and architect based in Los Angeles. He has written for Carla, Art Review, and Flash Art.

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