Matt Rich

“My paintings get rid of the canvas and its hired muscle, the stretcher bar,” Matt Rich says. Though he is considered a painter, Rich describes his artistic purpose as “trying to make paint exist as a sculptural material.” Each of his paintings is the result of a laborious process in which Rich coats individual sheets with latex paint before he cuts them into irregular shapes and tapes them into an assemblage. These works are usually attached directly to the wall without a frame and only close inspection reveals them to be handmade, bearing scratches, smudges, and crinkles. Rich’s colorful geometry and playful optical illusions fall within the legacy of Color Field painting and Op art; he feels his work has a particular affinity with that of Richard Tuttle, who is among Rich’s primary inspirations alongside Ronald Davis, Lynda Benglis, and Ellsworth Kelly.