Kim Matthews Neutral Territory. A new online exclusive show.

Neutral Territory

a New Show
at Susan Hensel Gallery

by
Kim Matthews

August 15-October 15, in multiple locations!

Kim Matthews. Susan Hensel Gallery on Artsy.net is exhibiting a new online exclusive show and in-real-life window show from Minneapolis sculptor Kim Matthews titled Neutral Territory

Opening August 15 and running through October 15, the show is made up of Matthews sculptures, wall reliefs, and intimate drawings. The show spans three venues as a mini-retrospective of Matthews’ work. 15 images will appear on Susan Hensel Gallery’s online platform, Artsy.net/susan-hensel-gallery. Two large works will occupy the windows of the brick-and-mortar. Susan Hensel Gallery in Minneapolis at 3441 Cedar Ave S. And a solo exhibition of colorful recent sculptures, Objects of Affection, opens at Douglas Flanders & Associates in Minneapolis on October 2. Common to the online exhibition and the Objects of Affection exhibition are the small contemplative drawings from the ongoing 108 series.

“I’m interested in the ineffable qualities of “objectness”

“I’m interested in the ineffable qualities of “objectness”—what is sometimes called aura—as well as materiality and process as vehicles for spiritual engagement. My work is rooted in long-term meditation practice; making drawings and sculptures is a complementary discipline of devotion. I use tactility to draw the viewer into the work and toward introspection through the seduction of intense looking.” Kim Matthews

This sweeping selection, that spans multiple physical locations and the digital realm, celebrates the ongoing career of an artist who is able to handle the subtleties of existence without pretension or self-aggrandizement. Instead, Matthews pursues her subject matter with quiet patience and an intuitive grasp of her project.

The work is physical, with the surfaces often built out of repetitive two- and three-dimensional features that undulate and shift through their pattern. Similarity and difference, repetition and interruption. It’s a mesmerizing effect. Matthews’ work has a way of doing this to the viewer. It begins to pull at a string, some little feature you notice, and soon you are unraveling to ever deeper levels of being. It is a descent into the depths of the ocean, a meditative journey into transcendent reality.

The Normal Art-world Game

You get the sense that Matthews is not playing the normal art-world game. These are not works embedded in academic dialogue, following the trends of the intelligentsia. They are not spoken into life with the lexicon of theory. They are a spiritual practice—the “outward stroke” of activity that follows the “inward stroke” of meditation.

Whether responding to wildfires, social injustice, the pandemic, or lost love, her work is clearly rooted in silence. It allows her practice to stay coherent. It provides a through line for her practice and, while there is variance, the stillness in the heart of the work always remains.

The Susan Hensel Gallery is proud to present this incredible exhibit as an online exclusive show as well as a window show. The Susan Hensel Gallery focuses on compelling objects, meaningful use of materials, and engaging sculpture, now available through its online space. It is a gallery where experimental ideas and works of the hand join to create unique sensory experiences. Susan Hensel Gallery represents a small group of Midwest artists, including Ingrid Restemayer, Nina Martine Robinson, Kim Matthews, K. Daphnae Koop, and Martha Bird.