Paul Matthews
March 5, 2011 – April 17, 2011
Opening reception March 12 ~ 7-9 pm
Members and Artists only ~ 6-7 pm
“I make a think and draw a line around it”: lecture, book signing and gallery walk
April 3, 2011 ~ 2 pm
Exhibit contains nudity and sexual imagery
This 60-year retrospective, presenting a cross section of Paul Matthews’ work throughout his long career, is the first solo show given a show at Ellarslie. The show will consist largely of signature figurative works, with some landscapes and portraits included—about 50 – 60 pictures in all.
Matthews’ work from the beginning has dealt with the human face and form and the human story. Many of his paintings are of a psycho-sexual nature and deal with “the great mysteries of sex and death.” He likes to describe his painting as “neuro-vascular.” Matthews studied at Cooper Union Art School in New York (1957—60) where he won the Highest Achievement Award, and then had two shows at Zabriskie Gallery, in 1964 and 1966. After living in England for a year and a half, Matthews in 1967 moved to Erwinna, PA, on the banks of the Delaware River, where he and his wife Lelia raised their 4 children. He has lived with his family in Lambertville since 1984, where he maintains a studio.
He had a recent show at the James A. Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA, (2009) and before that a solo show at The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton (2003), which was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer art critic Edward J. Sozanski as “by far the best exhibition around.” He has won two First Awards at the Philadelphia Sketch Club (2000 and 2003). Matthews has shown solo at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Nexus Gallery (Philadelphia), Viridian Gallery (NY), and was in a landscape show at D. Wigmore Fine Art in NY in 2009. In Lambertville he has had 4 solo shows at Riverrun Gallery and has had 11 solo shows at Atea Ring Gallery in Westport, NY. Matthews is in the permanent collections of the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City, the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY, the Trenton City Museum, and the Birkenhead Gallery in Liverpool, England. A 240-page catalogue of the artist’s work, featuring essays by New York artist/critic Alexi Worth and the poet Gerald Stern, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry, and photographs by Ken Ek, will be available in the museum gift shop. The catalogue will be $40 during the show, $50 afterwards.
Learn more at www.paulmatthews.net.