Matt Wilson — À propos — Slash Paris

A discovery, Matt Wilson

At different times of art history and especially during periods of art mutation, there is always a creator to seize again the fundamental parameters and specific procedures to impose his/her work. This certitude is confirmed by Matt Wilson’s colour prints.

Born British, he could be seen as the successor of the New Color New Works school, the colour being so essential in the immediate seduction of his images. But it is also true that the limited size of his prints, from the photograph tradition, invites us to an intimate reading of his little forms perfectly composed. If Matt Wilson borrows his subjects from the daily life, his pictures are the opposite of the European school of ordinary.

Technical parameters such as depth of field, back lighting, background light without any flash, are used in each photograph for an encounter which could be the beginning of an adventure, a friendship or another human event. Each likely encounter, with a place or with a person, is reinforced by the caption, always going with the peculiar image or series to arouse our imaginary. Photographed by Matt Wilson, every place — road, improbable area or residence — seems charged with personal history.

The series mark the special moments of these encounters, but all the images are produced to be seen individually, without the serial habit. However, they are all part of a same vision.

In the very sensual coloured palate of Wilson, there is a closeness to the subjects Debbie Flemming Caffery knew how to catch with her coal blacks. One can feel a familiarity with Alec Soth’s practice, without the programmatic efficiency of Magnum style, that is to say, with a lightness which exists out of any tactic, with the modesty of a Great.

Source : www.lacritique.org, November 2009