Matt Connors

Matt Connors (b. 1973, Chicago, IL) is a painter who creates impactful visual compositions, with a sustained interest in form and colour.

His work draws upon the history of painting and processes, particularly minimalism and abstraction, but is also influenced by design, poetry, writing and music. While his visual vocabulary is often borrowed from the modernist canon—colours, gestures, grids, framing devices and other geometric compositions—Connors’ approach is resolutely contemporary in both method and conception.

Artist: Studio

Artworks

Matt Connors,

Data & Recognition,

2022,

Acrylic and pencil on canvas,

60 × 51 in (152.4 × 129.54 cm)

Matt Connors,

Deglove,

2021,

Acrylic, oil, and colored pencil on canvas,

45 × 36 in (114.3 × 91.44 cm)

Matt Connors,

It/s Stops /Stopped,

2020,

Acrylic and pencil on canvas,

36 × 26 in (91.44 × 66.04 cm)

Matt Connors,

Untitled,

2020,

13 × 9 in (33.02 × 22.86 cm)

Watercolor and pencil on paper

Matt Connors,

For Sleeping Audience,

2019,

24 × 21 in (60.96 × 53.34 cm)

Acrylic, colored pencil, crayon on canvas

Matt Connors,

Title to come,

2018,

16 × 13 in (40.64 × 33.02 cm)

Acrylic, oil and colored pencil on canvas

Matt Connors,

Negative Creep (third placket dilation),

2018,

66 × 50 in (167.64 × 127 cm)

Oil, acrylic and colored pencil on canvas

Matt Connors,

France Stamp,

2017,

71 × 55 in (180.34 × 139.7 cm)

Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas

Matt Connors,

First Stack,

2016,

72 ½ × 56 ½ in (184.15 × 143.51 cm)

Oil, acrylic on canvas with artists frame

Matt Connors,

Big.Body.Surf,

2017,

85 × 69 in (215.9 × 175.26 cm)

Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas

Matt Connors,

TBT,

2016,

18 × 23 in (45.72 × 58.42 cm)

Pencil and acrylic on paper with colored matboard and artist frame

Matt Connors,

Large Real Bottoms (3),

2015,

84 × 60 × 3 ½ in (213.36 × 152.4 × 8.89 cm)

Acrylic on masonite

Matt Connors,

Second Witch's Hat,

2014,

60 × 48 in (152.40 × 121.92 cm)

Acrylic on canvas

Matt Connors,

PANIC,

2012,

64 × 50 in (162.56 × 127 cm)

Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas

Matt Connors,

Picture Corners,

2010,

27 ⅞ × 21 ⅞ in (70.80 × 55.56 cm)

Oil, acrylic and pencil on canvas

Exhibitions

Matt Connors, Body Forth, Jan 27 – Mar 5, 2022
Matt Connors, Hocket, Oct 20 – Dec 10, 2017
Matt Connors, Machines, Apr 24 – Jun 1, 2014
Matt Connors, You Don't Know, Oct 21 – Nov 22, 2010
Matt Connors, Enjambment, Mar 13 – Apr 20, 2008

Publications

Matt Connors, Ryan Preciado
Body Forth / A Cliff to Climb, 2022

Matt Connors
GUIL(D) E, 2019

Matt Connors
A Bell Is A Cup, 2016

Matt Connors
Machines, 2014

Matt Connors
Correspondences, 2011

Press

Madeleine Clark "Matt Connors: Finding Aid at Goldsmiths CCA." Fad Magazine March 12, 2024

Roberta Smith "Art We Saw This Winter." New York Times January 4, 2023

Rory Mitchell "Matt Connors at Xavier Hufkins." The New York Times March 13, 2021

David Rhodes "Luigi Ghirri." The Brooklyn Rail October 2020

"'Painters Reply'." The New York Times July 31, 2019

Joe Fyfe "You Are in Good Hands with Matt Connors." Hyperallergic November 30, 2017

"Matt Connors." The New Yorker October 28, 2017

Jerry Saltz "I Love Canada’s 17-Artist State-of-the-Medium Spectacle ‘Make Painting Great Again.’ It Also Makes Me Worry for the Fate of the Lower East Side...." Vulture June 14, 2016

Lanka Tattersall "Best of Los Angeles, 2015." Art in America December 21, 2015

Alexis Georgopoulos "Matt Connors." ANP Quarterly October 1, 2015

Aaron Horst "Matt Connors at Cherry and Martin." Contemporary Art Review LA May 28, 2015

"SMC hosting art exhibit, artists’ reception." Santa Monica Daily Press February 12, 2015

Roberta Smith "The Paintbrush in the Digital Era." The New York Times December 11, 2014

Nora Griffin "Matt Connors." Art in America September 1, 2014

Karen Rosenberg "Matt Connors: 'Machines'." The New York Times May 15, 2014

Heather Harmon "Matt Connors: Off-the-Wall Artist." W Magazine April 11, 2014

"2013: The Year According to Matt Connors." Walker January 24, 2014

Christopher Bedford "Five Non-Figurative Artists on Abstraction." Frieze November 1, 2012

Kaveri Nair "Matt Connors." Artforum October, 2012

Suzanne Hudson "Matt Connors." Artforum January 2011

Matthew Bourbon "Matt Connors and Fergus Feehily." Artforum June 2011

Roberta Smith "Matt Connors: ‘You Don’t Know’." The New York Times December 9, 2010

Holland Cotter "On the Piers, Testing the Waters in a Down Art Market." The New York Times March 5, 2009

Roberta Smith "Is Painting Small the Next Big Thing?." The New York Times April 19, 2008

"Matt Connors." The New Yorker April 14, 2008

Stephen Maine "A Landslide and a Cocktail Party." The New York Sun March 20, 2008

Amra Brooks "Must See Art: "Abstraction at Michael Kohn Gallery." LAWeekly September 26, 2007

CV

Matt Connors

b. 1973, Chicago, IL

Lives and works in New York, NY

  • Education

    • 2006

      MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT

    • 1995

      BFA, Bennington College, Bennington, VT

  • Selected Solo Exhibitions

    • 2023

      Finder, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Scotland

      Tune, Herald St, London, United Kingdom

    • 2022

      Invert, Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland

      Matt Connors, CANADA, New York, NY

    • 2021

      Swap, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium

    • 2019

      In Here, Herald St, London, United Kingdom

      Figure, The Modern Institute, 3 Aird’s Lane, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    • 2018

      Look Up, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium

      The Monteverdi Gallery, Tuscany, Italy

      Le Sirenuse, Positano, Italy

    • 2017

      Hocket, CANADA, New York, NY