Wide-Eyed Wonderment

-Dan Williford

At Sherwood High School in Olney Maryland, Matt may have been one of the only students to take ceramics all four years. Before he was an artist, or even an art student, he was simply a fixture in the ceramics room, and as such was able to take liberties that most other students could not. He rummaged through the storage closet, pulling out colored glass, toxic orange paint, wire, wood, and other off-limits supplies and began creating his first mixed-media sculptures. Shards of glass embedded in hot glue flowed over ceramic landscapes, collages of photographs, and jumbles of screws, wire, and silverware. Frequently he layered paint over the elements of his sculptures, and then inscribed words in sharpie marker. The resulting assemblages were angry and dangerous, but they always managed to have a sense of humor and a sense of the absurdity that, from Matt’s perspective as a teenager, the world was full of.

Uncertain as to whether he wanted to join the elitist, competitive world of art school, Matt spent several years taking art classes at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. His work there focused on sculpture and intaglio printmaking, and while studying there he created beautiful works under the guidance and encouragement of some of the amazing artists who taught there. Like his unorthodox creations in his high school ceramics classes, Matt continued to take inspiration from a wide variety of materials. He stretched, for example, nylon pantyhose over playful forms that were shaped out of sharp chicken wire to create a 3-foot hanging mobile. In his final year, he worked long hours outside of classes designing the layout of the school newspaper, The Montgomery Advocate. “Taking over” might be a better way to describe the work that we both did on the paper. We wanted to turn it into a more relevant and stimulating publication, and the visual element was no small part of this full-on makeover. Matt did the layout of each issue entirely on his own, including, at times, photography and ad production. By the time he left Montgomery College, he felt destined to continue studying art.

Matt entered St. Mary’s College of Maryland in the fall of 2000, and graduated in 2003 with a B.A. in Studio Art. Through his classes at St. Mary’s, he continued to work on sculpture and printmaking, but also broadened his skills to included digital photography, bookmaking, and installation. His senior year was comprised of a year-long “St. Mary’s Project,” which culminated in a body of work presented at the senior art show, along with an extended artist statement and final presentation. In the past, Matt thrived on using materials and fulfilling class projects in the most indirect and atypical way he could devise. The most challenging part of his senior year was the structure of the St. Mary’s Project. Matt clearly felt uncomfortable about having to verbally explain his art. He was adamant about not taking an easy-way-out approach to discussing his work, and instead tried to capture its non-verbal nature, including the physical effect that the pieces had on space and on people who experienced them. They were not, he hoped, objects to be looked at or talked about, but beings to interact with. By the end of the year he felt more confident about what he wanted to be and did not want to be as an artist.

Matt currently lives at 52 O Street Studios in Washington, D.C. and works as a production artist for the Washington City Paper. He continues to produce artwork, focusing currently on sculpture and digital prints, and on showing work in the D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York areas.

LINK TO enoughforall.com:

enoughforall.com was born October, 2003 to showcase the work of Washington D.C. artist Matt Hollis. All works in the gallery as well as the artist's statement are copyright Matt Hollis and may not be used without permission. All other content on this site is copyright enoughforall.com and may not be used without permission. We welcome comments and inquiries, and can be emailed here.

Matt is not currently represented by a gallery and none of the works in his possession are priced for sale at this time. If you would like to be notified of works that are made available for sale in the future, please email us.

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