The270 and
FineRepast are proud to present our third artist spotlight with a free ad in C-Bus Magazine. For the March/April 2008 issue, we spotlight artist Matt Barnes.
Matt grew up across the United States in his early youth afforded me a keen eye for observation. He spent many days and nights drawing and photographing the things in his environment and filling pages with his imagination from his very American experiences. After finally settling in Columbus, Ohio with his family at the age of 14, Matt began to expand his explorations with writing, performance, events, collecting, and collage while maintaining his sketch books and photographic images.
Matt graduated High School and was looking towards a career in performance but opted out for a, what he thought, more realistic degree in Fine Art. While in college Matt appeared on ‘
As the World Turns’ in a principal role. He also organized a huge senior exhibition filling a 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse with over 120 of his own original works with the help of many friends and family.
Matt graduated with a BFA from The Ohio State University with a specialization in Photography and minor in Film Studies and Art History.
Since graduation Matt has increasingly continued to create. He jump started, with the help of many other individuals, an event entitled SHOWcolumbus which aimed to highlight all facets of creative outlet here in Columbus. Matt wrote a 400+ page book of short stories, poems, and one liners of which has yet to be published. He has exhibited bi-monthly, on average, since graduation featuring his photographs, drawings, and found object combinations.
Currently Matt is involved in a Co-op Gallery in the Short North called 772. It is a hidden gem in the middle of the Short North located at the Northeast corner of Warren and High St. It has amazing wall space and an inviting ramp in the middle of the main area. The gallery has been featured in the Columbus Alive,
The Columbus Dispatch, and UWeekly. 772 is now having huge openings on Gallery Hop with an average attendance of 500 or more people through the doors.
Matt is deeply committed to the growth and expansion of art history, especially in the United States, by using and manipulating ideas and works from the past to move forward. He feel it is one the things we do best here. In his works Matt tries to represent the strengths of what America stands for and also to represent an era of time spanning our collective past to our present, rather than to represent a specific date. He is not limited in the display of his work. Rather, Matt prefer to show his art in the form of a collection show. Matt was heavily influenced by an exhibition arranged by the Wexner Center which displayed the Sonnabend Collection entitled ‘From Pop to Now.’
If you are interested in seeing more of Matt’s work, you may contact him at (614) 638-3714 or parasynthetic [at] gmail [dot] com.
