Upcoming Exhibition in Philadelphia

SPARK, BORROW AND STEAL

MATT HAFFNER

JUDY GELLES

PATRICIA LAMBERTUS

AURORA ROBSON

VIVIANNE ROMBALDI-SEPPEY

MARCH 16 - APRIL 30, 2010

First Friday Reception: Friday, April 2 from 6 - 8:30 p.m.

In conjunction with Philagrafika 2010, Pentimenti Gallery will present print based works in SPARK, BORROW AND STEAL by Matt Haffner, Judy Gelles, Patricia Lambertus, Aurora Robson and Vivianne Rombaldi-Seppey. This exhibit’s title is inspired by Picasso’s famous quote: “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”  Beginning with inspiration and ending with artworks, these artists appropriate pre-existing materials, images, text, etc. throughout their printing practice to re-form and re-contextualize the seemingly mundane.

PENTIMENTI GALLERY

Christine Pfister

145 North Second St.

Philadelphia, PA 19106

215.625.9990

The December Show @ Whitespace Gallery

the DECEMBER SHOW: now open!

Selected Gallery Artists:
Robin Bernat - Jonathan Bouknight - Teresa Cole - Sarah Emerson - Jody Fausett - Matt Haffner - Sally Heller - Julia Hill - Ann-Marie Manker - Beth Marcum - David Yoakley Mitchell - John Otte - Mark Sandlin - Red Weldon-Sandlin - Michele Schuff - Scott Silvey - Caroline Smith - Micah Stansell - Whitney Stansell - Ann Stephenson - Richard Sudden - Tommy Taylor - Yukari Umekawa - Tracy Wagner
 
http://www.whitespace814.com
http://whitespace814.blogspot.com

Hours { wednesday - saturday 11-5} or by appointment

Location: 814 Edgewood Ave, Atlanta, GA

Video from LeFlash

A little late but finally here. I have been very slow to update this part of my site, but wanted to get some old items up and also list some upcoming shows I've got in the works. Please check back soon for more.

Street Fighter from matt haffner on Vimeo.

This video was silent with the idea that the soundtrack would come from the street itself. The video was projected onto the entire facade of a building in the Castleberry Hill arts district of Atlanta as a part of LeFlash 2009. As people walked the streets, cars, bikes, motorcycles, buses and horse-drawn carriages droned past, and planes flew overhead, the characters in this video fluidly "danced" to a symphony of urban reverb and modulation.

Also, here are a few of the images from the installation to give a better sense of the install.

you can find more images at the LeFlash flickr page here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1255110@N23/pool/

and here:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=leflash

LeFLash 2009

I've been working on a new piece for the October 2nd, Le Flash 2009 event here in Atlanta. My piece will be a video projection on the facade of 235 Walker Street.
This will be a site specific video installation. The piece is entitled "Street Fighter". It looks at the seductive nature of violence in urban environments and the relationships our bodies have to the architecture that surrounds us.
For more info on my piece or the 2009 Le Flash event, please go to:
http://leflash-atlanta.com

Installation Images

Here are a few images of recent installations at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta. These are all cut paper and other media. The large "Sleeping Giant" is white cut paper on a brown and black painted wall. The crouching giant, entitled; "Trepidation" is made simply of black cut paper. The other works are black cut paper and video projections. Each video has slight movements including circling hawks, planes flying through clouds, elevated commuter trains, and flocking birds.

Dreams of a Sleeping Giant - Opening Reception / Exhibition dates and Artist talk

Dreams of a Sleeping Giant - Matt Haffner

Exhibition Dates: April 24th - June 6th, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, April 24th, 2009, 6:30-8:30pm

Artist Lecture: Wednesday, May 20th, 2009, 6:30

Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia
TULA Arts Center
75 Bennett Street, Suite A2
Atlanta, Ga. 30309
404.376.8700
info@mocaga.org

About the MOCA Ga. Working Artist Project

We are grateful to the Charles Loridans Foundation for funding the Working Artist Project, including the exhibition and catalog. This project is an initiatve of The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia to support established, working artists in the Atlanta metroplolitan area.

Joining MOCA's Annette Cone-Skelton as a 2008/2009 juror was Carter Foster, Curator of Drawings at the Whitney Museum of AMerican Art, New York. Each of the Three winning artists is supported with an exhibition, promotion, a studio assistant and major stipend to create work over the course of a year. The Working Artist Project exhibitions and the accompanying catalog will present new work by these three artists and document the work created throughout the project year.

Matt Haffner's exhibition is the first in the series presented by the 2008/2009 Working Artist Project winners. This exhibitiobn will be followed by solo exhibitions by the other two artist winners, Marcia R. Cohen and Maria Artemis. A catalog featuring the work of all three winners will be available at the end of the three exhibitions.

Exhibition in Philadelphia

Pentimenti Gallery

Info for upcoming show at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia:
Laura and I are having concurrent exhibitions at Pentimenti Galery in Philadelphia this month. Conceptually and aesthetically, our work is completely unrelated. This is the first time that we have shown "together", aside from single pieces in group shows, auctions and the like.

MARCH 6 - APRIL 11, 2009
Reception: Friday, March 6, 6 - 8:30 pm
Pentimenti Gallery is pleased to announce 2 solo exhibitions AGGREGATE and TALES FROM THE LONESOME CITY from March 6 - April 11, 2009. A reception with the artists will be held on Friday, March 6 from 6 - 8:30 pm.

LAURA BELL
"Aggregate"
Paintings

This series of paintings is derived from biomorphic forms and cellular systems, as well as celestial objects such as constellations, nebulae, and galaxies. Image sources include both Hubble photographs and microscopic slide images of deadly human diseases, in an exploration of both the minute and the monumental.
The images suggest an inner space, populated by fluids and gasses, bacterial growth, paramecium, fungus, and mold. Through the exploration of microscopic forms that simultaneously hold both regenerative power and destructive potential, the images are both a celebration of the beauty found in the pulsating undercurrents of life, as well as the an acknowledgement of the powerful threat that these same forms can wield. Despite their intimate size, the paintings also refer to an outer, infinite space, which hints at both the source of life, as well as its absence.

see more of her work here:
laurabellstudio.com

MATT HAFFNER
"Tales from the Lonesome City"
Paintings & Works on paper

MATT HAFFNER’s paintings and ink drawings on mylar with traditional photograph derive from film noir, comic book and contemporary popular media. This new series presents fictional and chaotic urban landscapes with remembrances of street life staged with transparent figures evoking a feeling of nostalgia. Also in these works, the source imagery is from the streets of 3 cities: Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta.

After this solo show at Pentimenti Gallery, I will be having another solo exhibition open April 25, 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta.

Upcoming Exhibition of Drawings and Paintings

This has been a busy last several months, and now I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The first thing on my calendar coming up is an exhibition of drawings and a couple paintings at Pentimenti Gallery (March 6th - April 12th / Opening reception as part of First Friday, March 6th).
Next on the agenda will be a long anticipated solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Atlanta. This show will feature, large scale works of installation, video pieces and paintings.
In the next few days I will post a couple images for these shows with some more formal announcements.

Studio View.
I've been working 100 miles an hour lately. Getting ready for my April 25th opening at MOCA here in the ATL. Here's a quick sneak peak as to what's being worked on. Lots of cut paper, video, stencils and exacto blade cuts.

New Life to the old Web Site

I just gave the web site a bit of an overhaul. New images, new text, some videos, etc. I'm working on revising the links and a few other tweaks, but the portfolio was the priority.

check out the face lift:

http:www.matthaffner.com

Atlantan Shout Out

I've been off the blog for a bit working feverishly on a couple exhibitions for the spring. I'm making renewed effort to keep up with postings. Just the other day the December issue of the Atlantan magazine came out with an Arts issue. This issue features one of my paintings on the cover and a small blurb about me and my work on page 12.

Here's the link :

http://digital.modernluxury.com/publisher/modernluxury1/ATLA/issue14/magazine.php?logo=0&issueid=4617&page=1

Back from the woods

i got back last weekend from a really great residency at the hambidge center in north georgia. it was a great opportunity to make art, mediate on some coming shows and get some god momentum on my studio practice. here are some images from the trip and a few of the pieces that i made while i was in residency there.

and here's the art. these are part of a series of 13 works. they are ink on frosted mylar over a traditional cprint (color photo for the lay folk). some of these mylar pieces have been cut into to reveal specific items of the photograph beneath, creating an interesting dimensional push and pull in the imagery.



i've yet to really craft my artist statement for these much less title the work, but i've been thinking a lot about how these are kind of post apocalyptic view of the cityscape. the photos are barren of life with people drawn back in that speak about the memory of place and the chaos that ensues during the collapse of a city. more once i've fleshed out an artist statement on this stuff.

Hambidge Residency

I'm getting ready for a two week residency in the mountains between north georgia and north carolina at the hambidge center. this should be a great opportunity for me to focus on nothing but making new work. as the facilities are limited i'll be trying to work exclusively on works on paper and photography.
i'll be interested to see what two weeks away from family, friends, with no email, phone reception, facebook, etc. will do to my psyche. i'm sure this will be great fro getting work done, but right now i'm a little freaked out about being alone with myself and my art and a book of the writings of marcel duchamp.
check back in a couple weeks and i'll post some new works that were made while at the residency.

Installation of "The Pushcart Vendors"

Matt Haffner - Discusses his new work -
"Community Profiles" or "The Pushcart Vendors"

a large-scale public art installation
as a part of A New Genre Landscape

the talk will be at Coan park in the Kirkwood / Edgewood area of Atlanta

4pm, Saturday June 14th

located on Hosea L. Williams Drive between Anniston Ave. and Woodbine Av.
(the installation is in the lower part of the park on the side of the community center)
1520 Woodbine Ave., SE, Atlanta, GA 30317

Installation shots of "The Pushcart Vendors"

here are a handful of the shots from yesterdays install.

New Mural Went Up Today

click on the image below to get a larger view

"The Pushcart Vendors" - 2008 Matt Haffner

with the amazing help of my crew, we threw up my biggest wheatpaste mural to date - 80 feet long and 2o high. it took about 8 hours to get this completed, but i looks great. check back this week and i'll have some installation shots and hopefully some video of the installation soon as well. for now here's the final installation shot.
this mural is in Coan park in the ATL. it is a part of the (new) genre landscape. check the posting below for more info on this installation, the opening and the artist talk on site.

Atlantan Magazine Article

Be sure to check out the feature article in the Atlantan magazine here:

http://www.modernluxury.com/digital.php?e=ATLA

jump to page 48 to view the article.

Artist Talk for A (new) Genre Landscape

Mark your calendars, I will be doing an on-site artist talk,

June 14 @ 4:00pm
at Coan Park
1530 Woodbine Avenue.

I will be talking about the new piece that I'm installing for this city-wide public art exhibit, my methods for working on a piece like this and the concepts behind a work like this.

Opening Reception for New Genre Landscape

clink on the image below to view it larger.
hope to see you all at the opening on the 7th and on the 14th for my artist talk. more info on that later