The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Matthew Geller
Artist Hutabut LLCNew York NY 10013 United States Cell Phone: 917-804-0118 Website: https://matthewgeller.com
Bio
In the 1980s, Matthew Geller switched his studio practice from primarily sculpture to producing video works, reworking the structure and style of television storytelling with comic narratives that played off conventional genres—documentary, fairytale, melodrama. Employing fragmentation and disjunction as storytelling devices, Geller intercut several seemingly unrelated anecdotal stories into cohesive, if nonlinear, narratives. Beginning with his fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, he integrated his skills as a storyteller and sculptor by creating intimately observed worlds in miniature. For the past 20 years, he has taken these ideas, changed the scale, and extended the possibilities for site and a chaotic viewership by producing temporary and permanent public art, which has been described in various ways, from “urban earth-works” to “industrial baroque settees.”
Geller has created public artworks throughout the United States and in Canada. He has exhibited at the: Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, New Museum, Kunst Kanaal—Amsterdam, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum—Eindhoven, Witte de With—Rotterdam, Smithsonian Institute, Los Angeles Contemporary Art, Queens Museum, Boston ICA, Chicago MCA, Moderna Musset—Stockholm, among others.
Geller’s public artwork has won numerous awards and he’s received fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. In addition, he has received grants from Creative Capital, New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and Greenwall Foundation, among others.
Artist Statement
My 20-year history with public art has included many temporary and permanent object-based and site-specific sculptures often with participatory functional elements while incorporating themes such as collaboration, discovery, and ingenuity. While visually eclectic, my work always prioritizes creating moments of respite, contemplation, or interaction, and it always befits the site’s functional and visual context.
I purposefully use materials from the everyday outdoor environment—anything from benches, to swings, to canopies, to pipes—and bring them into the realm of art. I create a level of connection to the familiar while highlighting elements of awe and beguilement to make a micro public square or landmark that encourages social interaction.
The works are spirited, accessible, participatory, and very often unexpected. By considering behavioral design and incorporating dynamic elements activated by people and changes in the weather, the resulting work is in constant flux. The artwork becomes part of the community’s fabric and is integral to shaping how we live in public space. The idea is to surprise while fostering a sense of an inclusive community around an unlikely object or site.