To view our print collection of Matthew’s work, go here.

Exclusive Print 1

Exclusive Print 2

Exclusive Print 3

MH: Your forms recall the silhouettes of a certain type of modernist sculpture and decorative art. Can you talk about your influences?

MF: I’m influenced by a lot of different things, when it comes to my forms.  Some of them started as human figures, or day to day objects that over time have been stripped down and become less and less figurative.  Others have come from excessive doodling.  I’m interested in the relationships between shapes.  And the spaces that those shapes inhabit.  And the even smaller spaces between those shapes.

MH: What’s your background?  How did you become an artist?

MF: I’ve been painting, and drawing for as long as I can remember.  As a child I spent a great deal of time with my aunty who (at the time) was a full time, working artist.  Both of my parents worked full time, so I’d spend the afternoons at my aunties house in the city.  She would sit me down with pencils and paper, and encourage me to draw.  And so it never seemed out of ordinary to be an “artist” for a living.
She is a terrific wildlife painter.  And I remember always trying to draw deer like her.

MH: I’m curious about your drawings on book pages… What made you select that material in particular?

MF: The book pages have a real lived in feeling; something I can’t really explain.  There is just something about the way they feel, and look, that really pleases me.  In the past couple of years I’ve been using these pages for some of my ink pieces.  It’s fun because it’s quite different than when I’m painting; on the pages the images are already there.  So it becomes sort of like a subtraction of space.

MH: I enjoy the way you often seem to obstruct your picture planes with a large white rectangle that seems to block much of the image “behind” it. Why do you keep returning to this arrangement?

MF: Thank you!  I tend to paint over my paintings rather regularly.  If I live with them for any amount of time, I find myself painting over them.  I feel that it has become an integral part of my practice.  I rarely make a painting first try.  It’s many, many layers, and previous paintings/failures below the surface.  And I feel that in a way, painting the white block over the work sort of brings the old paintings back to the surface.

MH: How does photography fit into your practice?  Your photo work is very carefully composed and formal, but nevertheless much messier and grittier feeling than your other work.

MF: Photography for me is very much about composition, like in my other work.  Shapes, shadows, light.  I feel that the photography influences the paintings, as much as the paintings influence the photography.  When I’m not in the studio, I tend to be out and about walking around taking photos.  I never leave the house without a camera.  When paintings aren’t working, there is nothing better than taking a nice long walk with my camera.

MH: It sounds like your process is really intuitive in terms of finding textures and arrangements that feel right to you.  Is it the same with color?  How do you develop colors in your paintings and drawings?

MF: Sometimes I keep a written account of different color combinations that I see when I’m out and about.  But a lot of it is just trial and error.

MH: Can you talk about the development of the exhibition that included the painting Two Shapes at Night?  I’m curious because it includes sculpture, but in a way that is still so connected to the flatness of your paintings, and the layering/obstructing process that goes into making a painting.

MF: The first time I used sculpture in this way was when I was at an artist residency in Brosarp, Sweden.  I actually had no idea what I was going to build until after I had arrived.  They had piles of scrap wood, a jigsaw, and a large space for me to work in.  Using the jigsaw is sort of like drawing.  And I was attracted to the flatness of the wood.
For my latest exhibition, again having the space to work on a larger scale, I wanted to try and construct a layered composition similar to that of the paintings that I’ve been working on.

MH: And the Two Shapes At Night painting; I’m curious about how the title lends a sort of personhood or individual character to the shapes in your very formal compositions.

MF: Just a couple of shapes, trying to make it through the night.

MH: What kind of shapes and compositions are you always looking for?  I’m curious because I have some certain shapes that feel like “home” to me when I encounter them out in the world, and your work has so many repeated motifs.

MF: I never really know what I’m looking for.  But when I find it I know right away.

We thought in a month time we would have the shop all done and ready to go, but it actually took us a few more days than planned…however, after A LOT of hours and days putting down walls, building shelves, tagging beautiful new products, we are now opening a GORGEOUS shop for you all. This Saturday May 18th from 12pm to 9pm. Come by and say hello! Much love, we at LPP.

The work of Catherine Story.

**All images are from Carl Freedman Gallery

The work of Aaron Finnis.

**All images are from aaronfinnis.com

Selected works from Matthew Hassell. To see more of his work visit his site 

Artist Statement: “In a sense, inexhaustibility is a quality of any perceived object, which must always be grasped in relation to a fixed point of view and whose appearance must always be filled out by imagination – and in such a way that every viewing appeals to a multiplicity of other viewings and the possible continually lies at the horizon of the real.”

- Mikel Dufrenne, The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience, pp. 396

Max Zerrahn is a photographer based out of Berlin, Germany. To see more of his work visit his site. The selected photos are from his ongoing “Misc.” series.

Rhea Cutillo (b. Philadelphia, PA) is a multimedia artist and a graduate of Mills College in Oakland, CA. She is interested in epistemic existence, both in the physical and immaterial realms, and aims to create immersive environments, often slightly fantastical or surreal. She is inspired by the unknown and the idea of freedom, and is often moved by textural elements.

A born traveler; she has numerous couch-surfing and hitchhiking adventures across the country. When Rhea is not painting or photographing, playing or pondering, she is working on a picture storybook project of such adventures. 

To know more about Rhea’s adventures and work go here.

The images below are just a selection of photographs from the exhibition which took place May 2011.

“Flotsam and Jetsam” is a collaborative project by Jacob Dahl Jürgensen and Simon Dybbroe Møller.

“Flotsam and Jetsam” associatively links ancient rituals of plunder and scavenging to modern artistic traditions such as the modernist embrace of the objet trouvé. Jürgensen and Møller’s project also playfully addresses the long-running relationships, ambiguities, boundaries, and traditions that define and govern the sea as social space and the collaborative possibilities inherent in island communities.

**All text is from apparent-extent.com

**All photos are from jacob-dahl-jurgensen.com

The work of Marcia Roberts.

If you are in Los Angeles, she is currently in an exhibition at Rosamund Felsen Gallery.

**All images are from marciarobertsart.com

Noem Held

Noem Held was born in Germany and now works and lives in Amsterdam. He is a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer.