28 December 2009

Art I like - Greely Myatt

Memphis, Tennessee, artist (and professor of art) Greely Myatt recycles with zeal, making quilt-patterned constructions of road signs and other reclaimed wood, and doing other interesting things like putting zippers in walls. The town recently honoured his 20 years there with nine concurrent exhibitions.
A review in Artforum says, "Myatt’s role as a southern artist facing the canonical works of art history is never far from his mind, as works including Roomrug, 1999, demonstrate. The combination of multicolored broomsticks fashioned into a fragment of a rug and reflected into a right-angled mirror re-creates a Smithsonesque non-site, though the site represented is that of the domestic sphere. The playful attitude and meticulous rigor with which Myatt handles his materials might be considered a mask that hides a deeper understanding of the roles and restrictions of regional artists in a universal context."Much of his output suggests or actively engages in dialogues––between the artist and art history, the art and its imagined audience, or notions of fine art and the craft tradition.
You can see an interview with him here. He says that he had the idea of building, rather than sewing, quilts - playing with the idea of quilts being built on tradition: "My collaborator was my grandmother ... who was deceased ... so that was an easy collaboration - we didn't argue at all."

He also says, "You never have enough money to do it, so you can let that be a reason not to do it, or you can let that be a factor in how to do it. I like that struggle."
See more images here and here, and in the "artists" section here.

2 comments:

Vivian said...

fascinating how some artists work with materials and traditions in a new way!

beatrice De said...

Like to bite on thise cakes. Impossible as the *factices* of foods you can see on my japanese blog.

Intersting work ! I like the video Menphis television...
Bisous. BĂ©atrice