Matthew Kirk
Big Man Small House, 2016
Great Jones Alley
Matthew Kirk (b. 1978, Ganado, AZ) is a self-taught artist who lives and works in Queens, NY.
A key element of his work is an investigation into his own Navajo heritage and the political nature of contemporary Native American culture. He uses “humble” materials, some found and some based in the construction or commercial art worlds.
He mixes oil pastel, chalk, gouache, spray paint, graphite, acrylic paint, colored tape, and brass BB’s in a compositional strategy that merges a representation of the landscape of the Southwest and the freeform abstraction of music. Throughout Kirk’s paintings symbols often reappear –a pair of boots, a basketball hoop, a Navajo man with a ponytail—creating a distinct visual world.
The title of his most recent New York exhibit titled, 1978, refers both to the year in which the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) was passed, and to the year of the artist’s birth. AIRFA established federal protection for the religious practices and holy sites of American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians.
Links
Matthew Kirk Bestows the Year 1978 Today at FIERMAN Gallery
Recent exhibitions include
Adams and Ollman, Portland
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago
Louis B. James, NY
Exit Art, New York