Matt Craven's Deathmask Voted Best in Show

Cutlog NY, the latest addition to New York’s Frieze art week, opened this week with a special VIP opening attended by some of the art world’s most notable figures. Installed in a converted 19th-century school on Suffolk Street, the fair functions to show art in an unconventional environment bringing culture, class, and collectors into an otherwise unglamorous space.

House of the Nobleman has gone one step further than the traditional booth, transforming an entire classroom into a large-scale salon of fine works on paper and 3D paper constructions.  The exhibition, led by co-directors Victoria Golembiovskaya and Anastasiya Siro, features a diverse roster of over fifty artists, both New York based and international.

Emerging artist Matthew Craven, hung alongside big name contemporaries such as Marcel Dzama, Caio Fonseca, Garth Weiser, and Guyton/Walker, drew an ample amount of attention with his over-sized drawing "Deathmask" made from ink on graph paper. After receiving inquiries from countless guests regarding the work, legendary photographer Peter Beard arrived and immediately proclaimed the work as the finest piece in the fair, a flattering superlative not bestowed on many.

Craven's work uses historical imagery as a abstract form of storytelling. Images from lost cultures, historical artifacts, and ancient landscapes are utlized to create ambigious and immaculate patterning, highlighting shapes and accuracy rather than historical imagery. Craven has been in numerous exhibition around the United States. He recieved his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2010.


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