archive
Separation Anxiety
Robert MacDonaldNew drawings
Todd Mattei - Project Room
September 8, 2006 - October 28, 2006
Opening Reception: Friday, September 8, 2006, 6-9pm
CHICAGO, IL -- rowlandcontemporary is thrilled to present Separation Anxiety, a new collection of intimate and exceptional drawings by Brooklyn based artist Robert MacDonald in his first solo exhibition. MacDonald creates elaborate drawings that mine the complex psychological terrain of projection. In the project room Todd Mattei presents a new series of digitally constructed video and images in his multi-layered trademark style. This exhibition also marks the first anniversary of rowlandcontemporary. Join us for an opening reception and help us begin our second successful year Friday, September 8, from 6-9pm. Gallery Hours are Saturday 11-5pm or by appointment. This exhibition will run through October 28.
Separation Anxiety
Psychologists have long used projective techniques like the well-known Rorschach Inkblot Test as a method of psychological evaluation where patients are asked to identify what they see when viewing a sequence of symmetrical images. For his first solo exhibition, Brooklyn-based artist Robert MacDonald has created a new series of drawings that continues his investigation of the notion of symmetry, its psychological parameters and art historical context.
MacDonald's process of making the work is similar to the process of making inkblot drawings. However, his acrylic on paper works are symmetrically interrupted. The two sides do not always match. They propose a symmetrically reflective system, but instead provide a range of individual images. Differences in the paired images range from slight variation, to an almost complete dissolution. The calmness of an assumed, reflective symmetry is purposely not delivered. We have been set up.
Interestingly, even as the images are freed from their role as half of a reflection, they still provide space for projection, something which seems almost impossible to avoid. Released from expectations of symmetry, one's projections seem free to spill into visions of difference, variation, and choice. Visual references to natural history illustration, psychological tests, and surrealist drawing games all present themselves.
Project Room
Through his cumulative building of layers via extensive computer manipulation Todd Mattei pares down his images to their essentials. His ethereal explorations through video and constructed imagery reinforce the notion of a shattered core. To look at them is to disassemble them.
Based on various composite elements Mattei's work positions itself amongst painting and photography, yet is devoid of hierarchy and linearity. Mattei himself states that he does not wish to focus a single critical gesture. These are images without a finite end. These are images that linger and resonate.
Robert MacDonald received his BA from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. MacDonald's work has been exhibited at Jessica Murray Projects (New York, NY), Salon 75 (Brooklyn, NY), Brickbottom (Boston, MA) and The Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield, MA).
Todd Mattei received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, and his BA from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. He has exhibited at the NOVA Young Art Fair, Chicago, IL, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI, and SWELL Gallery, San Francisco, CA. An accomplished writer and musician, Mattei's work has been published in the Journal of Experimental Fiction (2002) and he was a member of the music group Joan of Arc. Currently he writes, records and performs with the band Sharks and Seals.
