100 Words: Matt Magee at Hiram Butler

Maybe I would put Matt Magee’s Circa 1994 set of small paintings, hung salon style at Hiram Butler Gallery in the world of pattern, along with Melissa Thorne’s paintings currently at Devin Borden Gallery, and Monica Vidal’s Falling at the Art League that I’ve already written about, but he does not quite fit. His quirky paintings from the early ’90s on found wood explore a personal cosmology of signs and symbols like an updated, more polished Forrest Bess. I enjoyed Magee’s vibrating compositions and careful touch where the texture of the paint and direction of strokes often subtly echo or push against the shape they are set within.