My Artist Statement

Artist Statement
Matthew Cheney
My paintings are processed based. My art often reflects the way I live: action, motion, and the movement of my body are important in the work I do. Accordingly, my process of painting is highly performative: "Pink on black", was painted while skate boarding. Oils on canvas are my primary medium. My sporting activities are often integrated into my work whether it is skydiving, snowboarding, skate boarding or simply a more mundane action. In my most recent work I mix diverse elements: paints, video, performance, carpentry, environmental effects and sporting equipment. The subject matter in my work is often less important than the process. My subject matter is abstract expressionism. I am interested in exploring the legacy of Action Painters such as Jackson Pollock. By integrating sports that I love however, expressing myself becomes something uniquely different. I often do not know what the final results will be. My work is very conceptual, although I enjoy the challenge of making representational art. Because my work is process oriented, Jackson Pollock’s movement on canvas and Matthew Barney’s performance art have been influential in the development of my idea of making process based work. I have as much passion in the sports I do as in my painting. Contrasting the performance art of Saburo Murakami, my work uses modern day sport, painting and media together. By creating action art I am unifying these passions while drawing attention to the excitement of movement.