Gallery Joe: Go see 'A Killing'

After writing my gallery opening promotion post this morning I realized that I should write up my favorite viewing from my First Friday ventures on Friday evening, to the big city-wide gallery opening events.

Then I found that apparently the wonderful ladies of artblog had already had that idea, and done a much better job than I was going to. So, let me just say that I probably stopped by about ten galleries on Friday, and the work at Gallery Joe (3rd St. and Arch, Old City) was the most compelling. I liked both exhibits, but I favored Knoxville Girl. Go see it! You have till December 15th.

From the artblog review:

The story plays out like a fuzzy ballad plot–Frankie and Johnny or Silver Dagger. The groupings of figures suggest tableaus in religious paintings although garbed as modern youth. This is a morality play, dramatizing the contrast between depravity and what’s pure and perfect. The anguished moral judgment here reminds me of Goya and Los Caprichos, yet Matthews remains on the fence at the same time. The ambiguity in the action and in the guilt is thoroughly contemporary.

The review goes on with some great reflections from the artist himself on what motivated this collection of drawings. Check it out!

I strongly agree with artblog that the pieces should be kept together. I think if a small museum, like, for example, I’m thinking of the SmArt Museum at U.Chicago, bought the work as a complete set that it would swiftly become a favorite with patrons. A piece they were sort of known for.