I made this for you: Matt Perez, 2017 Efroymson Bridge Year Fellowship Exhibit
McCutchan Art Center/Pace Galleries
University of Southern Indiana
February 25 – March 14, 2018
Free Public Opening Reception: Sunday, February 25, 2 – 4 pm
The “I Made This for You” exhibit features three large sculptural installations created by Matt Perez during his yearlong Efroymson Bridge Year Fellowship. Mr. Perez, a 2015 USI studio art graduate, spent the past year creating the artworks seen in the exhibit to perfect his art portfolio, funded by the 2017 Efroymson Bridge Year Fellowship. The Efroymson Bridge Year Fellowship is a competitive award program that provides a highly motivated and talented recent graduate of USI’s Art and Design Department a post-undergraduate year to advance his or her artistic vision significantly in order to gain acceptance to graduate study. The University of Southern Indiana and the Art and Design Department are most grateful to the Efroymson Family Fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation for their generous sponsorship of this outstanding award.
Mr. Perez has transformed the four galleries in the McCutchan Art Center into colorful, whimsical and symbolic tableaus. Six Ethereal Spirits guide viewers through the scenarios presented. Mr. Perez states, “ When I first started the Efroymson Bridge Year Fellowship I felt overwhelmed by the (galleries) space and the stark white walls, so my first idea was to bring the white of the walls into the three-dimensional space. I chose white (plastic) tablecloths to bring out the white walls of the gallery. It was my attempt to gain control of the area”... I use household, easily obtainable objects because I wish to showcase that art isn’t material specific nor is it meant to exclude any type of object used to create.”
In the Entry Gallery, Child’s Play, is an installation of small figures, “the Toddlers”, engaged in battle, using pencils and other creative tools as weapons. For Mr. Perez, they represent the artist’s “arrested development” but through persistence and focus, the idea that one can make a career in art. Grendel’s Greed, in Galleries One and Three, refers to the folk tale, “William Tell”. Mr. Perez says, “In my version Grendel is asked to stay true to his convictions and shoot an apple off his own son’s head, missing completely while simultaneously hitting the center of a dart board. My (installation) attempts to portray the hidden agenda I feel greedy people have”.
In his artist statement, Matt Perez declares, “The job of an artist is much like the job of the historian, documenting the story of human societies; however, while history concerns itself mostly with dates and numbers, the artist has the ability to capture the ethos of people surrounding them”.
