Matthew Deleget
Hammond (USA), 1972
Although he’s American, Matthew Deleget (1972) feels De Stijl is directly part of his artistic heritage as a painter working in the tradition of (reductive) abstraction. Upon the arrival of Mondriaan in New York City, in September 1940, abstract painters directly adapted and reinterpreted De Stijl strategies for their own. In his work Deleget freely samples, remixes, and often subverts his precedents. He is particularly interested in the primary colours red, yellow and blue. He uses them as a given, as a matter of fact, a readymade, and a convention. He uses the grid in a similar way, around colour and from throughout time into his work.
With a pluralistic approach Deleget merges painting with conceptual, process, and installation strategies. His work absorbs, digests, and reacts to what he sees and hears on a daily basis; urban culture, corporate government, news propaganda, unwinnable wars, religious fundamentalism, unconscionable materialism, and more. He attacks the problem of (reductive) abstraction from every possible vantage point.
Matthew Deleget has exhibited his work (solo and group exhibitions) in the US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. His work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial by Michelle Grabner at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. His additional museum exhibitions include MoMa/P.S.1, Bronx Museum of Arts, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Bass Museum of Art, and Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art. Deleget also works as a curator and arts worker.
In 2003, Deleget co-founded MINUS SPACE, a gallery based in Brooklyn, NY, specializing in contemporary reductive abstract art, and represents pioneering emerging and established artists and estates from the United States, Europe, South America, and Australia. Since 2006, he organizes solo and group exhibitions at both MINUS SPACE ‘s gallery, as well as other collaborating venues on national and international levels.
