The pieces stand with open arms, a kind of inner presence emitting out into the shared space. This is the sculpture of Kim Matthews. It is a study of geometry splashing through color, neither overly formulaic nor totally lost to its own enthusiasm. In the end, the abstract shapes bring us somewhere new, inspiring fresh perspectives on the way both objects and our own selves exist in the world.

The Glow of Love delivers this balanced approach to color and form to the Susan Hensel Gallery from September 15 to November 15, 2022.

A Minneapolis-based artist, Matthews uses these sometimes-cryptic objects as pathways into a meditative frame of mind. Not unlike the yantra designs used in Tantric practice, these works present brightly colored patterns, only now spread over a three-dimensional body. Like yantras, they are meant to promote a change inside the viewer. Though a yantra might place someone on a very specific road, Matthews has repeatedly expressed a desire to allow the viewer to find the way themselves.

In that way, these pieces are not so much depictions but vehicles. They don’t bring something to you, they take you somewhere else. It’s a mission that entangles meditation with aesthetics, spirituality with materiality.

While it all might begin to sound abstract, the visceral experience of the art is not. Matthews does not wade through theoretical pretense. Instead, she delivers big feeling with immediate pay off.

The pink X form of Big Bird (2022) sits bright and urgent. This strictly structured object sits under a yellow cube covered in anemone-like growths. The contrasting color, each as relentlessly bright as the other, matches the contrasting textures. These two parts come together without resolution, instead prompting an energetic response in the viewer. The relationship between the two somehow animates some relationship between us — one felt in the dance between in-breath and out. We are now brought deeper inward, navigating a pathway laid out for us by the artist.

Similarly, Nerd in Space (2022) amplifies the difference between two parts using exaggerated color, patterns, and geometry. It is simultaneously a Brancusi joke and an affectionate homage, using day-glo color, stripes, and manufactured forms where the modernist sculptor would have used cast bronze and carved stone, or stone and wood carefully chosen for their inherent beauty. The complementary contrasts of pink/green and orange/blue in the main form and base produce energy that surges outward.

A similar wink at the art-world pantheon is Baker’s Dozen, a compelling stack of neon-hued modules that dominate the room with striped pyramids and bases patterned variously with circles, triangles, checks, and other shapes. They perform on a smaller scale like Donald Judd’s minimal Stacks, using different means.  Both Judd’s work and Matthews’ work reflect into the shadows and onto the surrounding walls.

Other objects are deceptively simpler than Big Bird or Nerd in Space, though they too coax our consciousness into new realms. Kite 4 (2022) is a styrofoam rhombus finished with concrete and acrylic, like most of the works in this group. On its surface, sunbeam rays of pink and yellow burst from an offset center. The viewer encounters it as a trick on the eye, a kind of Op-Art experiment. But surface irregularities bring it to life: suddenly, it sits in the room with you, quietly being witnessed. There are other Kites too: striped hexagons, diamond-patterned diamonds, and a precursor, 2021’s rainbow-banded Hello World, whose title bears another pop culture reference: this time to the 1970s Partridge Family TV series’ theme song.

And the work does all of this with humor and an immersive sense of joy.

The Glow of Love continues Matthews’ recent foray into fluorescent color that began with the Objects of Affection series in 2020. Much of Matthews’ oeuvre utilizes natural materials and a monochromatic grayscale. Yet recent sociopolitical turmoil sent the artist back to her childhood — another time of unrest — to find what comforted her then. The palette she returned with now defines her new work, including the current series.

That color is put to use in bold patterns that connect to Matthews’ education in layout and typographic design. That comes through in the approach and visual sensibility to many of her pieces. There is a clear love of 60s graphic design and its ripples in Pop Art.

In the work, one can almost feel it forming in the artist’s head, a prototype spinning behind the eyes. Where does that foundational rhythm and love of objects come from? Since birth, Matthews knew the ocean. She was born in Anchorage in 1965, moving out to the coast of Maine only two years later. From the cold and serene Pacific to rocky beaches looking out into the Atlantic — the ocean forms a major visual and sonic backdrop to the artist’s early life.

And while growing up in Maine, her parents worked with an auctioneer in the summers. This brought a steady stream of bizarre objects through the hands of the young Matthews, objects that would form a deep bond with her over the years. Combined with the ever-present rhythm and expanse of the ocean, we can see the foundation for her artistic career that now spans decades.

Matthews has exhibited across the United States in numerous selected group exhibits, and she made her international debut with a 2017 appearance in Ukraine. She has also appeared in dozens of one and two-person exhibitions across the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. Her work has won multiple awards, including a recent Merit award from the Gainesville Fine Arts Association.

The Glow of Love continues Matthews’ ongoing search for “objectness” in an artistic practice that doubles as a spiritual pursuit for introspection and connection.