Greely Myatt POINTING FINGERS AND FLINGING BRICKS
The work in POINTING FINGERS AND FLINGING BRICKS continues Greely Myatt’s practice of using reclaimed materials, repurposed objects, carved and constructed wood, cut steel, changes in scale, humor – sometimes dark – references to cultural and social issues and riffs on art history.
“The works in this exhibition follow from a previous exhibition in Memphis late last year. As I said about that exhibition, the work could be viewed as ‘short stories’ – having some connections beyond proximity. The title of that show, BETTER THAN A STICK IN THE EYE, came from the old saying that implies “things could be worse”. It seemed to fit the condition of the world we were, and are currently in.” Likewise, POINTING FINGERS AND FLINGING BRICKS describes the world, that is the people, we are: lacking responsibility and placing an abundance of blame. Myatt reminds us of the Biblical story of “The Mote and the Beam” - part of the Sermon on the Mount in which Christ addresses hypocrisy: remove the log from your own eye before you criticize the speck in your brother’s. Or, if you point one finger, three point back at you.
Myatt is widely recognized for his whimsical sculptural objects and monumental installations made from found materials. Through relationships and connections between genres and styles, notably surrealism, pop, and folk and outsider art, he develops a compelling visual language of scale and site, identity and place, and art and its history.
The two title pieces, Pointer and Flung Brick address the two title sayings: Pointer finds its form in Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse hand, but also recalls directional shop signs of yesteryear. Supporting chains are disconnected and the arm, a raw tree branch, never connects to the hand. Nothing is as it appears. Flung Brick is a constructed image of a brick with motion lines made of colorful broom handles. Referencing George Herriman’s Krazy Kat cartoon characters Ignatz the Mouse throwing a book at Krazy Kat, Myatt makes it clear to the viewer that the brick “flying” in front of the wall is actually fixed in its position.
Other works in the show are far less literal to the title but encompass Myatt’s call for greater compassion. References for Hero, a Myatt-height, box-like wooden structure, include Philip Guston and Robert Morris: Guston’s Martyr, a non-figurative interpretation of St. Sebastian in which arrows pierce a wooden framework, and Morris’ Untitled (Box for Standing). Myatt inserts handles of broken or retired garden tools through the box, filling the interior with tool heads and sending handles into the space surrounding the box. By leaving the handles up for grabs, Myatt’s piece serves as commentary on essential workers working with bad tools in the ongoing fight against Covid-19.
Such as the Wind-Flower consists of five steel shelves that have been cut producing a progression of a hand, or glove, morphing into a flower – five fingers to five petals on five shelves. The flower is an anemone, or a wind-flower. In Greek mythology, this flower grows from a mixture of Adonis’ blood and Venus’ tears and is generally considered a sign of hope coming from the passing of death.
“‘All in all, it was all just bricks in the wall,’ sang Pink Floyd, so I called it Veil. Should it be veiled? It’s a wall in front of a wall. We love putting things on walls. The “things” on the wall are incidental, but carry significant meanings – some personal, some nostalgic, some found, some made, but all hopefully universal. References to art and life. Birds on a line - pictures of setting suns – knees becoming fingers - nervous shadows - beams from, or into, eyes - rocks and bricks abound. Ignatz Mouse zips Krazy Kat with a brick and they think it’s love. Offissa Pupp is obliged to duty. All alone and all together.”
Greely Myatt was born in Mississippi, teaches in Memphis, and lives and works in West Memphis, AR. He received an MFA from the University of Mississippi and a BFA from Delta State University, Cleveland, MS, and was a long-time professor of art at The University of Memphis. He has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States, Europe and Japan. He has received numerous grants and fellowships and received the Mississippi Arts and Letters Visual Arts Award in 1994. In 2009, a twenty-year retrospective of his works was exhibited across Memphis in nine museum and gallery venues. His work is in numerous private collections and the following public collections: City of Memphis; City of Portland, ME; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Memphis Cook Convention Center; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville; Tennessee Brewery, Memphis; Tennessee Interstate Sculpture Project, Hartford; and Urban Art Commission, Memphis. POINTING FINGERS AND FLINGING BRICKS follows a busy 2021 with two museum exhibitions, outdoor sculpture projects, and a DLG Memphis solo installation.
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