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Matt McCormick On His Exhibition ‘Lead Me Not Into Temptation’ at OMNI | Vogue

Matt McCormick On His Exhibition ‘Lead Me Not Into Temptation’ at OMNI | Vogue

Renowned for sweeping oil paintings of cowboys, vast American landscapes and a modern day spin on the American West, LA-dependent artist Matt McCormick has subverted assumptions of modern day American society and a fading American aspiration towards vivid desert scenes in his most recent exhibition Lead Me Not Into Temptation at OMNI in London.

By means of a blend of paintings, sculptures, film, images and installations, McCormick explores evocative symbols of American values and the broader attachments of Western consumerism and extra. Goods this kind of as a basic Pepsi can, a tractor and a long freeway road are digitally manipulated and layered for a bold, surreal end. 

McCormick’s get the job done is imbued with subtle meanings and seemingly random phrases to elicit an interpretative, interactive knowledge from the viewer. He invitations his viewers to peer into his operate and decipher their personal meanings of the scenes ahead of them. 

Talking to Matt McCormick as he closes his exhibition at OMNI, he discusses how growing up in an creative family members aided him to forge his own route as an artist, the inspiration driving Direct Me Not Into Temptation and street-tripping to Monument Valley with his greatest pals in lockdown.

Matt McCormick On His Exhibition ‘Lead Me Not Into Temptation’ at OMNI
Image courtesy of Matt McCormick

Sabrina Soormally: Can you notify me about your history in art and how you first acquired started off?

Matthew McCormick: I grew up in an art-pushed family, equally of my mothers and fathers had been working artists, so from a young age I was in my parent’s shared studio, crawling around on the floor involving my mother’s dim space, the office environment and then my dad’s portray studio. So it was form of some thing that I was usually quite engaged with and then it just was a natural element of the household dynamic you know? It was just what we did and the weekends ended up artwork classes with my dad and mom and that variety of point. And then as I entered university it was just what I tended to be drawn to, I thought of myself “the art kid” so from a younger age that was the established-up, and then as I bought more mature it was just one of those people items in grade university when they check out to get you to figure out your long term – I realized I desired to do the job in the arts but it was figuring out how I was heading to do the job in the arts. I went by way of a pair of distinct iterations of that and then I ended up exactly where I am right now, which was a hodge-podge of all of my interests and it is come to be an ever-evolving point for me.

SS: How did your parents’ do the job influence you? Do you feel that your parent’s artistic type rubbed off on you? Or did you, from an early age, forge your individual path and your very own eyesight of what you preferred to do?

MM: When I was younger I was certainly 1 of those young children who was striving to rebel from every thing that they needed to clearly show me… it was up right up until a sure age I was a sponge, and then at all over high faculty and that period of time, it became a period of time when I was trying to rebel versus every little thing that they have been exhibiting me, so then I was finding my own music and developing my individual id. And that things nonetheless kind of forms who I am nowadays, but as I received more mature I  begun bringing back a whole lot of the things they experienced attempted to present me or uncovered me to at a youthful age. So I rebelled against it for a when, but it did appear back again about. Now my father and I especially have a incredibly shut marriage when it will come to talking about art and chatting about it on a steady basis. We had been essentially just more than in London in October on a excursion just to come in this article and look at art and knowledge it with each other. That was a nice circle of lifestyle in that perception!

SS: You have worked in a whole lot of distinct mediums, which medium would you say defines your profession the most effective?

MM: For a lengthy time I’ve constantly mentioned that oil portray is wherever I felt the most in my factor, but the fact is that I’ve usually really jumped about in distinctive mediums. For me the piece actually did choose on the medium, and you know as of late I have constantly said that as a inventive it is additional about producing function and a search and experience to your output, irrespective of what it is if I print on a t-shirt, or I make a movie, or I attract an illustration, or regardless of what it is… no make a difference what it is, the aim is that it will be recognisable as mine irrespective of the medium. So I’m constantly striving to even further force that and establish what that appears to be like and how that comes out to the viewer. As of late, I’ve been truly into using printing techniques and ink-jet printers with portray, which is some thing that I have done for decades but I have seriously turned the gas on so to discuss – specially with this clearly show I have actually implored a whole lot of these strategies. This demonstrate handles all the bases when it arrives to different mediums, there is anything from sculpture to paintings to drawings, it’s all in there, the complete kitchen area sink.

Matt McCormick On His Exhibition ‘Lead Me Not Into Temptation’ at OMNI
Picture courtesy of Matt McCormick

SS: In which do you typically attract inspiration from? Or is it a blended bag?

MM: It will come from what could begin as an autobiographical narrative, and utilizing almost everything that’s all-around me. But I’m from the generation that was born in advance of the world wide web, but was also quite substantially elevated on the web and entry to illustrations or photos – we by now had a lot of pictures that we were being uncovered to but it genuinely ramped up as shortly as issues like Google Picture, blogs and the way the internet has actually exposed us. Just before you had to go to sites like the newsstand and the library, for printed visuals and now it’s in your pocket at all occasions. And so I draw a whole lot from that, I function from a large amount of identified imagery mainly because if I have an strategy of an image in my head, it is extremely effortless and swift to just go straight to the internet to fill the gap … I’ve pictured an graphic in my head and now I can just go and obtain it, substantially simpler than maybe heading out and recreating and photographing myself. And I like the connection in between my generation’s use of photographs and continuous exposure to photos and connecting the art to that, so it’s been instrumental in how I make operate at this level. 

I’m not confident if I truly answered the place the inspiration comes from, but I’m locating inspiration from this autobiographical narrative, but precisely for this demonstrate, it connects to what we as a nation in America and also the entire world at significant are dealing with, and how the histories of these cultures and my personal encounters in shape into that and drawing a connection in between such things. 

SS: What can you convey to me about your artistic system and how close your closing piece typically come to your first thought?

MM: You know, I ordinarily have the items really a great deal wholly mapped out … nicely which is not 100% accurate! Some of them are absolutely mapped out just before I even contact the canvas due to the fact I’m a product or service of the c laptop or computer generation and whatnot. I was set into Photoshop classes when I was 13 yrs old and I have a pretty fantastic capability to generate the do the job digitally just before it even touches the canvas, even if it’s a free gestural portray I can sort of map it out, which is an exciting new way of carrying out points. But there is unquestionably work that I’ve built bit by bit and I start off them but a lot of moments will make a choice on the laptop or computer before I even consider it to the canvas as a way to stay clear of acquiring to start from the starting. I can choose a photograph of it, bring it to the laptop or computer, increase the colour, and insert a free concept of what it is likely to be like in advance of I basically place it on canvas, which is an exciting dialogue concerning engineering and the way I work. Mainly because for a ton of the get the job done I’m quite anxious with generating it come to feel timeless and typical in actual physical character but how I get there takes advantage of a lot of latest know-how. It is just becoming in the studio and sitting down with your own head in a big space or wherever, it lends alone very well to seriously diving deep into these topics and narratives that I’m conversing about. 

SS: Accessibility is pretty much a privilege in comparison to other generations.

MM: Of course certainly, 100%.

Matt McCormick On His Exhibition ‘Lead Me Not Into Temptation’ at OMNI
Impression courtesy of Matt McCormick

SS: What can you convey to me about your new exhibition?

MM: So this physique of function was when I initially talked to Matt from OMNI, he experienced offered some timeframes. They had just opened the gallery and were actually excited to get going and they presented some timeframes that were being extremely brief and turned significantly shorter when I locked in June since I to begin with talked about August which was not likely to work thanks to everyone’s travelling schedules so I gave myself about two and a half months to make all the work. And it was unquestionably a really brief amount of time to make every little thing that I finished up generating, but I really get the job done very well beneath that sort of force. 

So I went to two sequence that I had under no circumstances proven but have been two bodies of get the job done that have absolutely been steady in my follow for a lengthy time, it was one physique of function that I experienced launched a reserve about very last 12 months identified as ‘Into The Distance’, and the other touched on these paintings that I referred to as my tale paintings for a prolonged time. It was a way to fuse them with each other and hook up them in a way that possibly hadn’t been apparent to men and women who stick to my operate in advance of, and so I was able to provide in new factors and really link the new get the job done with points that are occurring about me and new techniques that I’m applying in my practice. 

And new suggestions that I wanted to explore arrived into it, so it started out with that autobiographical position, and themes and imagery that I have continually worked with, like the Western imagery, but then genuinely diving into the experience as a citizen of the U.S. and the trials and tribulations that we practical experience as a country. Specially when you get out of the state and glance again at it, it appears to be like really severe, and it’s virtually a warzone of beliefs all the time. I genuinely required to discuss about that even though also displaying the conflicts that occur to us on a every day amount, existence alone and the struggles that could exist interpersonally and within just the head. Employing discovered objects, these mundane objects like a Coke bottle or a tractor, factors that initially look are regular nothing at all objects, but we attach a large amount of encounters to and all around them. It may well be an object close to do the job or a drink, for instance, a drink offers us sustenance and functions as a pool to maintain and stay and the strategy that that is a symbol of these larger conversations that are occurring. 

The way that we as a persons interact with these objects, we are a country who has to have all the things all the time, and we accrue so quite a few issues and it touches on a whole lot of the difficulties all over the natural environment and politics. It is a way to exhibit this visual of a nation in turmoil which I seem to be to think that it is but through these straightforward objects. 

Omni, Matt McCormick
Graphic courtesy of Matt McCormick

SS: What inspired you to operate with these distinct landscapes?

MM: So a good deal of the performs are from a location called Monument Valley which is on the border of Arizona and Utah. For me it’s symbolic, it’s very similar to the cowboys for me, the cowboys are a image of People throughout the world, even while they exist in all places and I’m absolutely sure you can discover a cowboy everywhere from Argentina to Germany. If there was a Wikipedia image of an American, it would most likely be the Marlboro Person of kinds, so I have a tendency to use that symbolism a great deal for that explanation. Just like a pack of Marlboros or a Coke bottle has the exact result, the impression of Monument Valley is the exact for me. It was utilised continuously in all the Western movies from the early to mid-20th Century and for me, the primary three mountain plateaus out here are a incredibly recognisable image, it is practically cartoon-like. It is yet another way to maintain injecting that American symbolism and to place this discussion about what that all means. But at the identical time, it is incredibly gorgeous so through the lockdown, in January of 2020 I actually took a educate journey there with my two finest mates from Los Angeles and documented the total excursion. We spent a night at Monument Valley and turned appropriate again all over the next working day, and took the practice dwelling, but there is a video clip piece in the present documenting that full journey. I made use of images from the excursion in some of the is effective, the parts that use them I seem at as almost like a display screen of types, I was lifted looking at people motion pictures and looking at Marlboro ads, and it was form of an idealised character that I required to be, I imagined it was the supreme American male. For me as a kid and even as a man now hunting at these screens, these illustrations or photos of Monument Valley and spots the place these movies were being shot – the way the demonstrate is established up, you wander by means of these collage paintings of all these modern-day-day objects and the goods i was just referring to, you will then move into the area, enjoy the film and then go downstairs into this idealised, dreamy, imaginative area of these screen photographs with these cowboys peering into them, it’s a journey.

SS: You use words and phrases rather a large amount in your operate, primarily by means of your Western cowboy items, there’s a large amount of textual content in this exhibition as well. How do words and phrases and language turn out to be a section of your get the job done?

MM: So it is related to the picture I was referring to earlier, music is pretty essential to me and a good deal of my friends are musicians, even additional so than other artists and so I’m often listening to audio. When I’m working I’ll be listening and I’ll hear a lyric or I’ll be reading through anything and I’ll see a phrase and I will jot it down. A large amount of time I even forget where they appear from and it gets yet another element of this collage factor that is aspect of my practice where I’m collaging uncovered imagery, lyrics and phrases, and now it’s progressed into destinations wherever I’m either creating photos from a bunch of diverse photos, recreating them or photoshopping them, and I’ll do the identical with some of the terms so it is just a continuation of what I’m executing with illustrations or photos. It started off as a way to add one more layer to the personalized narrative but also a way to allow the viewer to peer in and determine out what it could possibly necessarily mean to them. For me, I under no circumstances like to demonstrate why I manufactured the perform or what it usually means, for the reason that I really want to spot the terms and the visuals alongside one another in a way that forces the viewer to figure it out for themselves and how they interact with it. 

SS Who are some present-day figures that you look to for inspiration at the instant?

MM: It is infinite but in this demonstrate particularly, I reference Martin Kippenberger, a sculptor. I established my possess version of one of his sculptures called ‘Street Lamp For Drunks’, he produced a street lamp that was quite curved and pretty much wobbly and I manufactured an American halt sign version of it. Mainly because I have been bringing a large amount of printing factors into my operate, I’ve been wanting at artists like Wade Guyton, Robert Rauschenberg and Julia Wachtel, and really hunting at these multimedia artists who had been not sure by 1 medium. It is why I have been actually into Martin Kippenberger these days, he would genuinely use everything, drawings, lodge stationery, sculptures, and household furniture, and he was in no way restricting himself. I would be remiss to not involve Richard Prince, any individual who understands my work can see a great deal of inspiration from him. I’ve been genuinely captivated to artists who don’t restrict themselves to one glimpse or feel, they function with thoughts and when the thought strikes they link with a specified media or medium and that can help dictate wherever the piece goes.

SS: What is it been like performing with the staff at OMNI?

MM: It is been magnificent, I have been telling them that I commonly just get the job done by myself with my crew at my studio so I’ve been in an echo chamber of kinds for the reason that I’m the leader of the workforce. I have my partner who I bounce suggestions off for specific projects, but at the conclusion of the working day every person is looking to me for the conclusion-all-final decision, and I’m the a person top the charge. I have experienced a hesitation to do the job with any galleries or anybody for a extensive time just out of necessity in the starting but in the very last couple many years it is been a way to control every thing, and a great deal of us artists want to handle a ton. I also delight myself on being able to do all the things, from making my individual guides, advertising my very own do the job, undertaking my possess reveals, I have my possess gallery in my studio – it is been extremely self-sustaining but essentially, it is been pretty wonderful coming out in this article and functioning with absolutely everyone at OMNI because I’ve realized is that they are equally inspired and they are incredibly prepared to assistance the eyesight and they don’t minimize corners, that’s not actually an encounter I have had right before. That’s been good for me, it is been reassuring me about the other side of the company that I really do not actually interact with. Typically, it is just friends of mine that do the job on that facet and I really do not work with them, they are just good friends. 

Matt McCormick On His Exhibition ‘Lead Me Not Into Temptation’ at OMNI
Impression courtesy of Matt McCormick

Go to mattmccormick.com and OMNI at 56-57 Eastcastle Avenue, London, W1W 8EG

OMNI opens the CHITO & Wu Yue exhibition on Thursday, 7th July 2022.

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