Existing comment:
Matt Leines
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Matt Leines' began imitating the comic visual style at a young age -- unable to wait for the toy figurines of superheroes eh received for his birthday, he would instead paint his favorites on the sides of building blocks. In college, Matt developed a more complex understanding of the comics when he studied their history and diversity. Leines identifies the Flash Gordon series as a heavy influence, noting the distinct illustrative style and the fact that caption narratives below the paneled drawings -- rather than thought bubbles amidst the images -- are used to describe the scene. Matt's earliest work does away with captions entirely, so the pictures of artwork appears ambiguous. In more recent years, Matt's influences have included Peter Blake, for his use of bright, primary colors; British Pop Artist and "grandfather" of Punk Comics, Gary Panter; Jack Kirby, the "King of Comics" and medieval manuscripts and Indian miniatures as influential visual mediums. In keeping with these narrative influences, Leines creates characters that often reappear throughout his work. Although he works primarily in acrylic, he previously favored ink and water color. The meticulous process he used during that earlier stage -- in which he would first pencil out the main composition before filling the lines with ink and the shapes with color -- recalls contemporary comics and medieval illustration alike. Now, he still omits words and language so as to maintain the ambiguous nature of his work and encourage the viewer to formulate their own interpretation. For the Party Crashers exhibit, Matt created joined paper puppet drawings.. These puppets, based on characters that feature prominently in Leines' other work, gesture to his childhood memories of painting superheroes on the sides of building blocks. |