Matthew Sawyer

Matthew Sawyer
Martin Lawyer and the Terrible Truth, August 13 – September 3, 2005
Opening reception: Saturday, August 13th, 6-9pm
395 Valencia, San Francisco

The Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco is pleased to present a solo exhibition by British artist Matthew Sawyer.  A musician and artist, Matthew Sawyer’s work has been described as melancholy and unassuming; a simple request to be acknowledged.  In an ArtForum article from 2003, Matthew Higgs, writer, curator and director of White Columns, New York described two of his works:    

“A more recent work, Someone to Share My Life With, 2002, titled after a track on a Television Personalities album, evolved as Sawyer observed over a period of months his next-door neighbor's nightly ritual of leaving his shoes outside his apartment door. One evening Sawyer kidnapped the shoes, taking them into his own apartment, where he painted a beautifully rendered swallow on each worn sole. He then carefully replaced the shoes in the hallway before anyone noticed they were gone. His neighbor awoke the next morning only to carry on with his daily routine, seemingly oblivious to Sawyer's tender intervention.
In an earlier work, from 2000, Sawyer's desire to be included, to be seen as part of a greater mass or social cause, was expressed by means of a stack of crudely painted wooden placards like those used in political demonstrations. Painted on the face of the outermost sign were the words NO TO BAD THINGS. Unable to decide which cause to support, lacking the confidence to make an independent ethical decision, or simply overwhelmed by the choice of evils to decry, Sawyer sought--out of desperation--to ally himself with all protesters and all causes.”