Brandt’s artistic approach is exceptional in that his oeuvre escapes a definitive movement. Through engaging in photography, sculpture, metal work as well as woodcuts in his own notable way, Brandt has carved a niche within the contemporary art scene.
Primarily his unique approach is due to his integration of physical elements which are echoed in each work, hence for his Lakes and Reservoirs series, the landscapes were bathed in the water of their subjects. Brandt’s 2014 series Dust featured reproductions of historical photographs of demolished structures, rendered in pigments borne of debris collected from those sites. His 2012 Bee series are made up entirely of honeybees on paper, whilst Night Skies feature cocaine dust on photographer’s velvet.
Erarta, however will focus mainly on Brandt’s elegant Silver series, which are large scale images of trees made from metal and silver. The series to be shown in Erarta will be one of a kind, as the project was specially commissioned by the museum to be later added to its permanent collection. An immersive forest-esque space is to be created, inviting the viewer to wonder amongst an orphic forest and come in close contact with these remarkable works. The trees featured are local, as the artist especially travelled to Russia in order to extensively journey around the forests near St. Petersburg in order to re-create an authentic Russian walk through the woods in accordance with his own artistic imagination.
We look forward to welcoming you to this exceptional exhibition.
Exhibition curator – Dasha Vass
The contemporary American artist Matthew Brandt was born in California and received his BFA from The Cooper Union in New York and his MFA from UCLA. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, USA. Both commercially and in the institutional sense Brandt has been exceptionally successful, his works being part of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Furthermore, one can find his works at the Royal Danish Library, National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen and the Columbus Museum of Art, amongst others.
Matthew Brandt was one of seven artists featured in the 2015 exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography. Brandt was also shortlisted for the prestigious French Prix Pictet award and had his work showcased in an exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2015. Notable press includes reviews and profiles in ARTFORUM, Art in America, The New Yorker, and Modern Painters.
