Matt Brackett
Born in Berkeley, CA. Received a B.A. from Yale University , New Haven , CT. Lives in Jamaica Plain , MA and works in Somerville , MA .
Recent solo and two-person exhibitions at Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA; and The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA.
Participated in group exhibitions at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT; Art Chicago, Chicago, IL; Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA; Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA; New American Paintings, Boston, MA; ArtSpace Gallery, Maynard, MA; and Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA.
Matt Brackett paints mysterious, quasi-allegorical narratives in a style that is precise, elegant, and traditional. With careful study of the masters such as Gustave Corbet, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and Edward Hopper, Brackett skillfully captures light, atmosphere, landscape, and figures. Whether the setting is an interior, seaside, or mountain top, Brackett instills his paintings with a feeling of reality. But is it real? What is happening here? The narratives are puzzling and just out of reach. Brackett draws inspiration from the staged narratives in works by contemporary artists such as Gregory Crewdson and Neo Rauch, as well as from his own life, often painting the places and people that mean the most to him. In the process of sketching, he exercises his subconscious, filling his works with contemplation, anxiety about change, futility, desperation, and hope. Each painting has meaning for the artist, but enough ambiguity to allow the viewer to also meditate on his or her own struggles. The perplexing narratives of these paintings mirror the uncertainties we all face in life.
-Kate Dempsey, Koch Curatorial Fellow
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For the past seven years, my paintings have focused on an old family house, a gathering place for four generations, and how its loss changed my conceptions of memory, belonging, and inheritance of adulthood. The paintings emerge from a stream-of-consciousness drawing process that feeds a growing library of inspirations in sketchbooks. With such unusual and unordered sources, my paintings do not represent truth or reality. They are like invented memories fixed alongside actual ones. Just as I hope it occurs for the viewer, I prefer the painting’s mystery to draw out an evolution of interpretation.
Since the sale of the house, the paintings’ settings have shifted outdoors and lingered in the surrounding coastal landscape. And I’ve found as my wife and I celebrate the arrival of our first child, I visualize scenes that speak of new wonder and possibility, while others still look backwards towards the distant doorstep.
-Matt Brackett
Image: Matt Brackett, Cold Front, 2007, oil on canvas, 28’’ x 49’’, Private Collection, Courtesy Alpha Gallery, Boston , MA
Meet the Artist: Matt Brackett
Brackett will discuss his work in The 2008 DeCordova Annual
Museum Galleries
Saturday, July 19 at 3 pm
FREE with Campus admission
