Matthew McLaughlin
June 2—July 2, 2017
Scenes from Suburbia
My work explores the relationship we have with our surrounding environment, both natural and manmade, suburban and urban, and how we interact and observe the spaces we inhabit and alter for our own wants and needs. My interest comes from my own observations of the places I have lived and the unique aspects that make them different from each other, while simultaneously, finding the ideas or aspects that are congruent. Growing up in a planned suburban community made me observant of the unusual aspects and components that characterize community.
Through image manipulation and the re-contextualizing of symbols, my work creates new perspectives for the viewer to consider when confronted with their own relationship with the environment. The work strives to have a conversation with the audience about their own awareness of space, want of things and societal norms, by not forcing a specific viewpoint. My art aims to bring forth questions that spark an inner dialogue that may or may not affect their perspective on their environment.
“Scenes from Suburbia” is a series of photo-realistic drawings that explore and investigate elements of my suburban neighborhood that create interesting stories when isolated from their “natural settings”. The work began as an exploration of leaf bags left on the corner and the scenes they seemed to be set in, but over time it has expanded into an exploration of detritus that has come to build a larger narrative about the idea of suburbia.
Matthew McLaughlin received his BFA degree in Fine Arts from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2007 and Design and his MFA degree in Printmaking from Arizona State University in 2011. Matthew has shown his work nationally and internationally and his work is in the collections of the Zuckerman Museum of Art among others. He has received numerous awards including the Maryland State Art Council Individual Artist Award in Works on Paper. He is a lecturer of printmaking and foundations at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD and teaches workshops on different printmaking techniques at regional print shops.
