Matthew Lafferty
Medium: Painting Studio Location: Studio 34 - Studio# 447 34-01 38th Avenue Email: matthewlaff@gmail.com Artist Bio: Oil painter Artist Statement: In the frenetic landscape of the post-internet age, where information and overconsumption inundates our senses and permeates our consciousness, I find myself compelled to navigate this digital ocean through the visceral language of paint. My work emerges from an instinctive and somewhat compulsory process, an intuitive response to the surplus of digested information that saturates our contemporary existence. In the act of painting, I engage with the immediacy of my surroundings, both online and off, both past and present. The process is automatic and feels almost void of decision, like the sun rising, or the genetically ingrained traits we all exhibit. I attempt to stay out of the way of myself while the amalgamation of stimuli bombarding my senses emerge into image. It is a journey of exploration, a constant negotiation with the relentless influx of data of all kinds, that defines our era. The canvas becomes a convergence point, a battlefield where the digital and analog clash and coalesce while simultaneously existing as a meditative space for the artist. The paint serves as a conduit for the expulsion of the surplus, a cathartic release of the accumulated detritus of the information age. Each stroke is a gesture of defiance, a reclaiming of agency and permanence in a world that often overwhelms with its ceaseless, superficial flow of images and ideas. The resulting compositions are a visual diary of this tumultuous dialogue, a testament to the act of filtering and distilling the chaotic stream of information into a tangible form. Ostensibly unrelated subjects overlap and intertwine, creating a tapestry that mirrors the complexity and seemingly aimless spew of content I attempt and inevitably fail to evade in my daily life. As I navigate this artistic terrain, I am not only grappling with the excesses of our digital era but also questioning the nature of creation and consumption of physical matter, piling up in a world where information is both abundant and fleeting. Through the alchemy of paint, I seek to transcend the ephemeral nature of pixels and bytes, inviting the viewer to engage in a contemplative experience that transcends the confines of the screen. In my work, I invite you to witness the interplay of intuition and compulsion, the synthesis of the digital and the tangible, and the expulsion of the surplus that defines our post-internet age. It is a hedonistic act, a journey into the heart of the contemporary human experience, where the patient and time consuming act of painting becomes a defiant assertion of identity in a world drowning in information. All images and text copyright Matthew Lafferty