Matt Janney
Artist Statement
Matt Janney is an artist who insists on using tactile, analog media in his personal practice. As a professional graphic designer, he views digital art as his rent check each month – simply not the place to make a statement. As someone finding himself troubled over the exponential progress of art produced by Artificial Intelligence, he is hoping to find a way to distinguish himself in a world of infinite opportunity. If it’s possible to create beautiful art, and even win competitions, as a layperson using AI artwork, what is the place for the artist? Is art simply content, meant for entertainment, or is it still possible for it to be something more? Matt is politically minded, with a specific concern for the state of the environment. As a result, garbage and forgotten items are frequently used in a collage style format in most of Matt’s recent work. Lastly, he has taken the rare practice of shunning social media, finding himself incredibly averse to hyper-realistic artwork due to the ease of smartphone photography. This has led to a largely abstract body of recent work, though there are instances of representational forms, albeit in a quite stylized way. Ultimately, Matt’s artistic goal is to answer the following: with infinite images available to the viewer at a few thumb presses, how can they be convinced to allow themselves to feel a painting, rather than just view it?
Venues
