Memory Holes: New Paintings by Matthew Bielen
FOUR ELEVEN GALLERY
Of these new paintings, Bielen says, “The Wampanoag maintained what have been referred to as ‘memory holes’ at certain locations to chart remarkable events that had occurred there. In a similar way, these abstract paintings act as markers at the intersection of history and present-day. The fantastic successes and failures throughout New England’s history echo and resonate in my mind while dealing with these pieces. The sunburnt skin of long-gone shipwrecked sailors shows up in this work abstractly, along with the mutilated bodies of today’s entangled whales, as they share a single stream of consciousness. Gaps or holes in our memories can leave us shaping our own narratives, filling in what we assume happened, or what we would like to think may have happened. Connecting my own artistic process to the past and present allows me to learn more about my relationship to history and the future.”
Matthew Bielen’s paintings are influenced by his love of the ocean, and the play between organic forms, and human’s ability to sculpt them. Growing up, his family would go to the beach in New Hampshire, where the New England beach weather was far more tempestuous than other places. His paintings are influenced by these atmospheric wanderings along the shoreline. Lighthouses, fog, swirling water, are all images conceptually implied in his paintings. Works such as Robert Motherwell’s abstract-expressionist series, “Beside the Sea,” painted from his Cape Cod home/studio, are an evident inspiration for Bielen’s style, content, and color choice, as are his other artistic influences - Budd Hopkins, Wendelin Glatzel, and Dave Hay.
Matthew Bielen, Entangled in Rope, 12 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas, image courtesy of Four Eleven Gallery