Matt Paweski

Courtesy the artist and Park View/Paul Soto, Los Angeles

Matt Paweski (b. 1980, Detroit) lives and works in Los Angeles. His sculptures sit between sculpture and functional design, referencing carpentry and furniture making.

Matt Paweski mines the intimate connections between object and viewer. He draws from varied historical and personal references, many of which are researched on his extensive travels: Italian Futurism and design, the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, Mexican modernism, and the distinct metalwork on gates and windows found in Havana.

“In the early aughts, and in the midst of a housing boom in Arizona, Paweski worked at a fabrication shop where he became fluent in metalwork, cabinetry, furniture, fiberglass, auto-body work, and industrial paint applications. For his ‘Machines,’ he uses these industrial techniques and materials for their “sensuousness,” he says, ‘their strength, their slick or dry, tactile, or sexy qualities.’ He goes on: ‘The goal isn’t to try to solve an ergonomic problem, but to re-create the emotional response we have with that function.’ Relieved of that expectation, the viewer is given over to the activity of reflexive observation, pleasure, and humor, engaged in a perceptual puzzle of positive and negative space, parts and whole, precision and sensuality.” –Svetlana Kitto

Selected solo exhibitions include Daisy Chain, Herald St, London (2020); Tre sculture e un disegno, Octagon, Milan (2019); Park View / Paul Soto, Los Angeles (2018); Gordon Robichaux (two-person with Sanou Oumar), New York (2018); Lulu (two-person with Ella Kruglyanskaya), Mexico City (2018); Herald St, London (2017); Ratio 3, San Francisco (2016); Recent Sculpture, South Willard, Los Angeles (2015); and Sculpture, Herald St, London (2014). His work has been included in the recent group shows The Essential Goods Show, Fisher Parrish Gallery, New York (2020); Sculpture from a Distance (Part I), Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); A Page from My Intimate Journal (Part II), Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (organized by Gordon Robichaux) (2020); Vivace, Balcony Gallery, Lisbon (2019); Automatic Door, Park View / Paul Soto, Los Angeles (2019); City Prince/sses, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019); CONDO, Queer Thoughts, New York (2018); Softcore, curated by Matt Paweski, South Willard, Los Angeles (2018); and A Page from My Intimate Journal (Part I), Gordon Robichaux, New York (2018).

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