Christy Matson: Never Done

Rebecca Camacho Presents is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles based textile artist Christy Matson. Matson employs a hand-operated, computer-programmable Jacquard loom to create intricate weavings to which she applies unconventional fiber techniques such as paint and layered composition. Through the duality of the machine and the hand, Matson reflects on the history of weaving in conjunction with art historical approaches such as geometric abstraction and collage.

Titled Never Done, works in the exhibition center on domestic pattern. Grids provide a structural foundation, directly and metaphorically. A classical artistic framework to achieve proportional accuracy, the grid is also the base of many conventional household textiles. Rooted in the micro-power of work customarily done by women, particularly with regard to the unpaid labor often performed by a mother or wife within a family and household, the grid structure serves as a visual translation of tangible limitations.

To this deliberate base Matson inserts painterly gestures and plays with dimension and composition. Tightly focused on contrasts in material and texture, slight alterations in line and palette compound as singular textiles develop or panels are collaged together. These expertly nuanced shifts beget wholes permeated by an undulant breath and fluidity, their humanity in contrast to the confines Matson set for creation.