Christy Matson is an artist based in Los Angeles, CA, whose hybrid woven/painted works engage hand-weaving as a lens by which to view history, abstraction and physicality. Challenging the tradition of hand-woven textiles as functionally objective objects, she creates artifacts that equally privilege the surface and the structure in the creation of her work. Remixing subjective elements of memory, gesture and imagination with historic weave structures and textile techniques,Matson’s artworks exist as commemorations of optimism and a delicate balance of opposites.
Christy Matson has been weaving by hand for over 19 years. Her practice engages a full range of weaving technology from portable frame looms, to hand operated jacquards, to industrial looms. Recent exhibitions include the Long Beach Museum of Art, Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Arts Houston, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Knoxville Museum of Art and the Asheville Museum of Art. Matson's work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and Smithsonian Museum of American Art’s Renwick Gallery as well as numerous corporate and private collections. She received her BFA from the University of Washington and her MFA from the California College of the Arts. In 2012 she was tenured and appointed as Associate Professor of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and she is thrilled to be visiting the department for her November 2018 lecture! Matson is exhibiting her most recent body of work at Volume Gallery in Chicago from November 2-December 29, 2018.
Image Credit: Christy Matson, 2018. The Thought is Complete. 43” x 50”. Cotton, Wool, Paper, Spray-paint, Acrylic.
Made possible by the William Bronson and Grayce Slovet Mitchell Lectureship in Fiber and Material Studies. This lecture is free and open to the public.
