Echo Scholarship – Matt Austin
MATT AUSTIN
– Echo Scholarship Auction –
XOXOX (Las Vegas Strip Club), 2011
archival pigment print
20″ x 25″
Estimated Value: $850
Matt’s Echo Scholarship is intended for an artist who will be traveling after their residency experience and will include a special Perch notebook, so that the artist can keep a journal on their travels.
“The Art of Solitary Reflection and Connection”
Even an hour with Matt Austin gives one the sense that he thinks deeply and takes little for granted. Through his work he is dedicated to fostering opportunities for meaningful conversation about art and the world. Matt’s introduction to photography came to him by way of his brother while Matt was in school in Iowa. Upon reflection Matt describes his time in Iowa as a challenging experience; photography, he says, offered an avenue for escape. His love for art and photography grew, leading him to Chicago where he pursued a degree in art and found a community of artists and intellectuals who challenged him to grow and come into his own.
For Matt Austin, art provides an opportunity to process experiences and ideas in a poetic way. Within this realm of solitary reflection, he gets the chance to really sit with something, feel the discomfort it entails, and learn to deal with it. This philosophy of deep reflection comes to life in his work Wake, where he takes the viewer through a photographic and written journey of a tumultuous time in his life. In Wake, Austin processes his feelings surrounding illness, death, financial devastation, and homelessness in his family; but in the wake of this ruin this work of art reaches out beyond itself and makes the viewer an active participant. In his work and his life Matt strives to foster connections between people he respects and finds interesting; The Perch, his new project, and Wake both undertake this venture. The Perch is a space in his apartment where he brings artists and intellectuals to sit and share a meal while discussing a topic that is relevant to them. The goal of these gatherings is to foster new connections between individuals and work through a topic as a group, posing questions and providing varied insights.
Matt’s passion for art and community came together at ACRE. ACRE, he says, was unlike anything he had ever experienced. At ACRE Matt found an “intense meeting of the minds;” he made fast and close friendships and found ample opportunities for collaborations that pushed him into new artistic realms, like music. In a way, Matt feels like ACRE was a “rocket ship that forced all of my art ideas to start moving forward in a really fast way.” At ACRE he found a community that trusted and appreciated his work and ideas. It was a relief for him to find a place of complete openness where he could immerse himself in work and create whatever felt right. His time at ACRE was so formative that in the years following he has done everything he can to stay an active participant. For Matt, ACRE is a “medicine for the brain,” pushing his practice forward while giving him new avenues for connection and expression.
Ashlan Falletta-Cowden