Diane Rosenstein Gallery is pleased to present Nocturnes, an exhibition of drawings by Matthew Sweesy shown in the Project Room.  Inspired by rediscovered childhood drawings, Sweesy offers compositions of colored pencil on panel that are vivid and laced with latent energy. This suite of meditations on his past and present are vigorously gestural and brightly colored visual puzzles, and reconfigure the basic elements of a child’s drawing: an articulated yellow sun, a strip of a green grass, the swath of light blue sky.  In Orange Flower (2017), he introduces recurring figurative elements into the picture plane – here a row of four breasts protrude into the composition like the flora of an erotic landscape. 

The exhibition title – “Nocturnes” -- refers to musical compositions that embody the moods and feelings of night time. “These drawings…consider the fears and anxieties of adulthood struggling to find harmony or relief within such hopeful, yet fleeting signs of childhood as a flower, the sun, a bird and the sky.  Each work is … a visual composition where time speeds up and slows down.” This is Matt Sweesy’s first exhibition with the gallery.

Matthew Sweesy (USA, b. 1974) is an artist who works primarily with painting and drawing. He cites Louise Bourgeois and the poems and writings of Wallace Stevens as influences on his outlook and practice. He received a BA in English from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (1997) after first attending United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. Recent exhibitions include Sugars of Other Skies (curated by Annie Wharton) at The Shed, Los Angeles, CA; Friends, Do Not Fear (curated by Daniel Gibson), New Image Art, Los Angeles, and Mind’s I (curated by Keith Tolch), Dalton Warehouse, Los Angeles (2017).  The artist lives and works in Los Angeles.