Matt Straub

June 05, 2012

Yard Dog Gallery proudly presents a new exhibition of paintings by Matt Straub. This is the first time his work has been shown in Texas.
He currently works in New York City and has a home in Buffalo, Wyoming. He has hitch-hiked across most of the western states and even hopped a few freight trains. His work has a deep nostalgia for the the harsh landscapes of the West.
The work is a mash-up of Pulp Fiction westerns and street art sensibilities. These paintings also reflect the period of transition between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. The paintings’ surprisingly varied and layered surfaces resonate with affinities to artists such as William De Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, and Sigmar Polke. Featuring classic Western iconographic images of cowboys, cowgirls, guns and horses, his work depicts the violent narratives and sentimental mythologies of the American West—a landscape defined by melancholy sunsets, badlands, gunfights, outlaws and red-blooded heroes. References include Hollywood Westerns and the bold visual vocabulary of the comics and pulps of the 1940’s-50’s. BANG! BLAM!
These Pop-Westerns are like graffiti splattered box cars rolling across the plains. The paintings are a metaphor for a vanishing West.

Matt Straub
Trouble For Sale
June 23 - July 29, 2012

Opening Reception
Saturday, June 23
7 - 9 PM
Yard Dog Art Gallery
1510 S. Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78704[gallery order="DESC" columns="1"]

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