"Innocence and menace collide..."
MATTHEW LAWRENCE
September 11 - October 10, 2009
Artist reception: Friday, September 11, 6-9 PM
October Bethesda Art Walk: October 9th, 6-9 PM
Artist's talk: October 10th, 4 PM
Gallery Hours: weekly by appointment, Friday and Saturday 12-5 PM
Neptune begins its new year of exhibitions with the jamming canvasses of glitter king supreme Matthew Lawrence. Utilizing mountains of glitter, toys, beads and glass in his art, Lawrence's paintings tell stories about the need to escape to a better place when life gets too crass, too distant from the safe world we believed in as children. His newest work includes portraits of his young daughters. In "We Will Live Underground (Righteous Sister)" we see the strong, confident expression of Tejal. She is flanked by a boy and a girl from Lawrence's childhood primer books and surrounded by baby animals as they scurry around her, the rabbits making their way underground into a nearby hole. Her hair reads as a mini universe which includes a small figure idling sideways, a hand behind his ear to listen to Tejal's thoughts. Although she is centered on the canvas and transcendent in her gaze, the scene around her speaks of visual chaos, eeriness and uncertainty.
In "We Are All Some Bodies Dinner" a young girl is seen running away in a panic from a large bear. They are in a lush forest. Here again is the relationship between children and animals but this time the bear is too goofy to be taken for a real bear. What are we running from and who exactly do we trust? Lawrence's canvasses are studies in the reestablishment of our connection to nature while an underlying sense of collapse pervades. Heavy with broken mirror, Lawrence wishes to remind the viewer they are as much a part of this journey as he.
Read Karen Schafer's review under PRESS.