After many years away from creating fine art while putting my shoes to the pavement and focusing solely on creating music as a career songwriter, I am both ecstatic and invigorated to have rekindled my inspiration to create visual artistic creations. Fine art for me has always been a place where childlike inquisitiveness and experimentation are preserved in a way that defies the repetitive nature of everyday life.  

In this new incarnation I’m keeping hold of a lifelong obsession with preserving the past and retaining the beauty of a former age, while acknowledging that everything changes and needs to be seen in new ways in order for progress to be made.  Combing through piles of vintage ephemera in various antique stores and second-hand shops it becomes immediately apparent in my mind that after people die the printed material they kept; letters, catalogs, post-cards, etc. are quickly discarded as if they have little value. But, in truth these items tell the story of a person’s life; their interests, where they traveled, and who they befriended, which makes it that much more tragic that these printed items often end up anonymously available in various re-sale outlets, or worse they end up discarded in landfills without ever receiving the chance to preserve their stories.  

Through the use of collage I am able to breathe new life into these forgotten images, further enhancing their beauty with the use of mixed media to incorporate my own hand-painted sketches on tissue paper. I believe the transparency of the tissue paper glued to the collage surface creates a perfect vehicle to combine new ideas with historical illustrations; a perfect synchronicity of the old and the new.  

It makes me sad to think that the hands and fingers that once caressed these materials are long gone and the people they belonged to are likely forgotten. But, even though I don’t know who they were I like to think their memories are somehow preserved in the finished pieces.  

- Matthew

Email: mmo556@gmail.com
Website: www.matthewmorganartwork.com
 

Education

BA 2005 Liberal Arts wtih focus in Business Administration, DePaul University, School for New Learning
1991 - 1995 BA in Music, Vocal Performance pursued, Capital University Conservatory of Music

Exhibitions

2010 Spring SmARTshow, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (March)
2010 “Now You See It, Now You Don't”, Flat Iron Artist's Assoctiation, Chicago, IL (February)

2009 Holiday SmARTshow, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (December)
2009 “Art On Track”, SALVO/Chicago Transit Authority/FIAA, Chicago, IL (October)
2009 Fall SmARTshow, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (September)
2009 “Salute”, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (July)
2009 Wicker Park Fest, Wicker Park Chamber of Commerce/FIAA, Chicago, IL (June)
2009 Bucktown Garden Walk, Bucktown Chamber of Commerce/FIAA, Chicago, IL (July)

2009 “Escape From The Cubicle: Art of the 9 to 5” Bucketworks/Why Not? Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (May)
2009 Gilda's Club Art Auction, Gilda's (Radner) Club of Chicago/FIAA, Chicago, IL (May)
2009 Holiday SmARTshow, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (February)
2009 “Critical Mass” Bike Winter Art Show, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (February)

2008 Holiday SmARTshow, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (February)
2008 Fall Art Festival SmARTshow, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (September)
2008 smARTshow, Flat Iron Artist's Association, Chicago, IL (June)
2008 Art at the Jo, Justinian Academy, Chicago, IL (May)

2007 “My Favorite Things” Show, High Risk Gallery, Chicago, IL (November - December)
2007 Mimi's Organic Exchange, High Risk Gallery, Chicago, IL (October)

Commissions

2009 Diann S, Chicago, IL - pet portrait
2008 Angela R, Chicago, IL - child's room animal portraits
2008 Cindy B, Chicago, IL - pet portrait
2007 Nancy G, Chicago, IL - pet portrait
2007 Lauren M, Chicago, IL - pet sketches

Former Gallery Representation

Flat Iron Artist's Assoction, Gallery 203, 1579 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622