Feeling Color | Matt Gagnon

March 9th - April 22nd, 2023

Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is pleased to announce Feeling Color, an exhibition of light sculptures by Los Angeles based artist, Matt Gagnon. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the New York gallery. Trained as an architect, Gagnon is deeply interested in the physicality of materials and their ability to conjure feelings along with memories. These works dig to unearth emotional frequencies of color, material, and texture by combining glass, metal, stone, wood, and concrete. The transformative light of the pieces, built by elements of surface and tone, invite the viewer into their glow.

Matt Gagnon has been creating variations of light forms for decades. His series, Stacks, is inspired by half lit skyscrapers at night that exposed the life inside and allow imagined narratives to be constructed. To create these striking towers, Gagnon layers bands of materials that vary in opacity, seeking moments where they harmonize. The exterior expression of each stack is dependent on the amount of ambient light present. A dark room will display the opaque pieces in the stack as a silhouette against the glow of the translucent pieces. The daytime neutralizes the interior lights and elevates the exterior color and texture. Ultimately, creating a dynamic experience for the viewer.

Continuing on the artist’s interest in challenging the boundaries between interior and exterior, this exhibition debuts Gagnon’s new sculptural works titled, Volcanoes. These pieces explore notions of interiority. Is it safety, warmth and comfort or the unseen, unknowable and hidden away? They are vessels filled with potential, suggesting a notion of mystery and wonder. The rock-like exteriors are filled with a deep saturated light meant to be a visual offering; a moment for contemplation and reflection.

While the practice of architecture is often based on meticulous planning and problem solving, Matt Gagnon works intuitively to put together different material and textures to show the subtle ways that the built environment shapes our lives. Burnt orange may evoke desert landscapes or home interiors of the 1960s, concrete may feel chic and modern or brutalist and industrial. The layered works feel like volcanic core samples, extracted for study from a particular place and time.

Matt Gagnon studied architecture at Cornell University then worked for Gaetano Pesce and Frank Gehry. In 2002. Matt started his own studio in Brooklyn, NY to pursue design and making at all scales. Over the years, Matt has taught design at Otis College of Art and Parsons School of Constructed Environments. He has been invited to speak at Savannah College of Art and Design, Cornell University, Woodbury School of Architecture, City College of New York and University of Central Oklahoma. His work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Metropolis, AD Magazine, Surface and Interior Design and has been exhibited internationally. In 2010, Matt moved the studio to Los Angeles.

Matt Gagnon

Blue Brown, 2022

Oak, painted MDF, acrylic, aluminum, steel, and LED

69½ x 10½ inches

Mortar mix, stones, acrylic, glass, steel, wood armature and LED

30 x 33 x 26 inches

Concrete, oak, maple, bronze, painted MDF, acrylic, steel and LED 82 x 10½ inches

Matt Gagnon

David, 2023

Poplar wood, bass wood, painted MDF, acrylic, aluminum, steel and LED

55 x 26 inches

Matt Gagnon

Concrete & Brass, 2022

Concrete, poplar wood, brass, aluminum, painted MDF, acrylic, steel and LED

106 x 10½ inches

Matt Gagnon

Lavender & Copper, 2022

Concrete, ash, fabric, painted MDF, acrylic, copper, aluminum, steel and LED

91½ x 10½ inches

Matt Gagnon

Blue Concrete with Rocks, 2022

Concrete, maple, fabric, painted MDF, acrylic, brass, aluminum, steel, and LED

75 x 10½ inches

Matt Gagnon

Yellow & Orange, 2023

Mortar mix, stones, acrylic, glass, steel, wood armature and LED

30 x 30 x 27 inches

Matt Gagnon

Blond Sand, 2023

Concrete, ash, painted MDF, acrylic, aluminum, steel and LED

56½ x 8½ inches

Matt Gagnon

EDUCATION, AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

1996 Bachelor of Architecture, Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Ithaca, New York

2012- 2015 Otis College of Art and Design, LA Part Time Faculty, Product Design Dept.

2010 Parsons School of Constructed Environments, NYC (2010 Fall, 2008 Spring) Part Time Faculty, Interior Design Department

1999-2002 Gehry Partners, LLP, LA (1999-2002) Design Team

-Corcoran Museum and School of Art: 127,000 sq ft addition to existing building

-Guggenheim Museum Exhibition Designs: Bilbao, Spain; Las Vegas, Nevada; New York, New York

-Competition Proposals for New York Times headquarters and a new museum for the Guggenheim

1997-1999 Meyer and Gifford Architects, NYC Designer

-Rizzoli corporate headquarters New York City / Jersey City Museum of Art /Private Residence New York City

1996-1997 Gaetano Pesce, NYC (1996-1997) Designer + Fabricator

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2021 Imaginary Artifacts, Solo Show of Light Stacks

Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

2020 Material Memories, Solo Show of Light Stacks at Winston Wächter FineArt, Seattle, WA

2018 Material Relations, Solo Show of Light Stacks at The New Gallery, Los Angeles

2016 West Edge Design Fair, Lounge design installation with Missoni and Roche BoBois, Los Angeles exhibition of furniture designed for RS Barcelona, Milan

2012 ICFF, exhibition of furniture designed for RS Barcelona, New York, NY Salon Del Mobile, exhibition of furniture designed for RS Barcelona, Milan

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018 Group Show During Milan Design Week, Rossana Orlandi Gallery, Milan, Italy

2015 Matiere Grise, Group Show at Pavillon De L’Arsenal curated by Encore Heureux, Paris

2014 Miami Design Bridge, Art Basel, group show curated by Clement Sauvoy, Miami, FL

American Design in Paris, group show, Mona Bismarck American Center for Art & Culture, Paris

2013 American Design in Paris, group show, Triode Gallery,France

2012 Design is Material, group exhibition of material studies during Modern Atlanta, Atlanta, GA

Hotel California, a group show curated by Sight Unseen and Brooks Thomas Hudson, New York, NY

SELECTED LECTURES, DISCUSSIONS, AND DESIGN REVIEWS

2020: CONSTRUCTING RELEVANCE, Presentation of recent projects.

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

2007-2015 Guest Critic on architecture and design reviews; Otis College of Art, City College of New York, Parsons School of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design and Woodbury University

2011 Prototype as Performance, Presentation of new work at Product Placement 3.1, New York, NY

Books

2015 Matière Grise, Encore Heureux, Pavillon de L’Arsenal, Exhibition Catalog

2014 Gardens Are For Living by Judy Kameon, Rizzoli

Press

The studio’s work has been featured in countless publications online and in print such as Architectural Digest, LA Times, Interior Design Magazine, New York Times, Icon, Surface, Metropolis, Design Milk, and more