Opening Reception: February 12, 6PM, as part
of the Belltown ArtWalk www.belltownartwalk.com
Matthew Kandegas exhibits his third and final solo show at
Form/Space Atelier. Kandegas moved to Vaasa, Finland January 1, to
join an intentional community of Suomi (Lapplanders) endeavoring to
re-establish Suomi customs, language and culture in an urban milieu (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korsholm ). The community has built in
the city a lichen farm, which, as fodder, will sustain a herd of
caribou. Kandegas will retain representation by Form/Space Atelier at
the request of his collectors located in Seattle, though as of press
time, Kandegas was unable to say whether he would continue to create
new paintings while in Finland, but said the move to Scandinavia was
"permanent and irrevocable...".
Matthew Kandegas has been described as a Post-Minimalist painter,
his subjects have been figural in response to stadium rock, but in the
last decade he has created only images of paperclips. Curator Paul
Pauper discovered Kandegas during research for organizing a
performative spectacle exhibition of Kyle MacDonald at Form/Space
Atelier in November of 2007. MacDonald is an artist and author of One
Red Paperclip... , an account of MacDonald's success in trading 14
times from a simple paperclip to a two-bedroom house.
Form/Space Atelier donated a Kandegas painting from his series
Trombones Jeunes to Strangercrombie 2009, his work is also in the
collections of MacDonald, Lindsey Daniel, The Low Income Housing
Institute, Cascade People's Center and several other charitable
organizations.
Trombones Bleu translated from the French is blue paperclips, the
paintings exhibited are the latest series which began with Trombones
Rouge (red paperclips) followed by Trombones Jeune (yellow
paperclips). Trombones Bleu are oil on panel, mostly large scale (4
feet by 9 feet) oriented portrait.
