"The paintings do reveal themselves. It's almost like it knows what it wants to be, and you're just kind of standing there, waiting for it to tell you."
Matthew Cox (b. 1961) creates psychologically charged figurative paintings that are technically ambitious as well as visually intriguing. He constructs narratives that seem to often contain elements of comedy and parody. He is interested in elevating the ordinary occurrences in our every day lives, and transforming these common events from banal to beautiful. One of his series was created first through text about a fictional criminal family called the Wonderfuls. He later pared down the writing to essential sentences and created the Wonderful Family portraits, each accompanied by its text.
Cox's solo exhibits include Recovery: Embroidered X-Rays at Finer Things Gallery, Nashville, TN; Seated Figures: Laps and Illustrated Sentences at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA; and Painted, Stamped and Stitched at the Aron Packer Gallery, Chicago, IL. He has received awards from the New Orleans Art Association, the New World Festival of the Arts, and was named a fellow from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. His work is included in collections at the New Orleans Museum of Art, LA, as well as the Georgetown College of Art, KY.
