robert firpo and tangos y valsecitos 9x12 acrylic/mixed media on bristol, 2005
LOOKING BACK, SPRINT FORWARD
recent paintings by MATT SESOW
"Painting is very hard. Challenge yourself to paint badly. Shock yourself. Don't tell people you are an artist. Get rid of all unnecessary expenses. Sell your car, cancel cable. You'll only be able to keep one or two good friends. You'll never retire. Buy a good fan; ventilate."—Matt Sesow
As a self-taught artist, Matt paints with a passion driven by personal tragedy: the loss of an arm to a freak accident. His paintings are charged with emotion related to the events in his life and the political atmosphere of his home in Washington, D.C. His influences are obvious: Bacon, Basquiat, De Kooning, and Picasso. The work is also deeply reminiscent of German Expressionism.
An artist myself, I respond to this raw energy—the thick, juicy colors, the layers of paint, the directness of his intent. The emotional power punch he delivers is implicit in all of Matt's work. When I visited his studio, the sheer volume of his work alone amazed me: 2,000 paintings crammed into the 600 square feet of his studio/apartment. Seeing the work piled up against walls, and stacks of paintings on every surface, made me dig to the bottom to see every last one. —Judy Onofrio