Matthew Day Jackson
New York-based artist Matthew Day Jackson makes sculptures and drawings using found materials to construct forms that allude to familiar and iconic subjects. In his exhibition at the Locker Plant entitled By No Means Necessary, Jackson showed work made in Marfa, including small drawings and collages based on images culled from science, history, and art history books; large wall drawings of the Tower of Babel and the Tomb of an Unknown Soldier made from contact paper, plastic tablecloths, and a woven wool blanket; a life-size Viking costume, made from a patchwork of Jackson’s own clothes, scrap leather, and metal spikes; and the façade of the Alamo rendered as both a miniature ceramic slab on a platform of popsicle sticks and a floor-to-ceiling scrap-wood construction. The mixed associations conjured by Jackson’s materials imbue the historical icons that serve as his subjects with a sly sense of irony.
Jackson has participated in group shows including Relentless Proselytizers at Feigen Contemporary, New York (July 2004). He has also shown work at Samson Projects, Boston, Massachusetts; Deitch Projects, New York; and Daniel Silverstein Gallery, New York. In 2003 his work was shown in the Portland Museum of Art Biennial in Portland, Maine. In 2002 Jackson was in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Washington, Seattle and a master’s degree in fine arts from Rutgers University.