MATTHEW RUSSO

matthewjrusso.com

@matthew_j_russo

Matthew Russo observes, abstracts, and reshapes the objects and things he encounters. He plays with forms, questioning their material qualities and utility. Blurring the lines of how an object may be interpreted and known, he constructs objects in relation to one another to produce even further questions. Born in Worcester, MA, Russo received a B.F.A. in Painting from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and an M.F.A. from American University. Russo has exhibited throughout the DMV but most recently at Mono Practice in Baltimore, MD, and at Art Enables in Washington, DC. He currently works in Washington, DC as an Art Handler and is part of the 2021-2023 cohort of the Hamiltonian Fellowship.

My practice is a playful line of questioning made materials, sparked by a fascination with making and understanding how we come to know the objects around us. What happens when we strip objects down to their formal and material qualities? How would the understanding of an object change if it suddenly became squishy, or if it became rigid? How would the object hold the weight of another if its material makings were something else entirely? These are just a few questions I pose while engaging play as an investigative tool. In my drawing series, WorkplaceDrawings, I used the free moments I had during work to depict how two objects can inform one another. In these colored pencil works on paper, I used patterns, shadows, overlaps, and flatness to confirm or confound a reading of space. In working on a flat surface, I was able to render material qualities and forms interacting while evading the realities of working sculpturally. By keeping the work small and mobile, I was able to experiment quickly and allow for easy transportation once my shift had ended. Similarly, in my sculptural series PracticedPlay, I question how these small objects may define or interrupt the domestic / gallery space, a nod to The Kreeger Museum’s hybridized architectural identity. Through these works and others, I invite viewers to take time and space for investigation, and consider how play might inform a catalog of possibilities.