Matjames Metson, CARTWHEEL Featured Artist, to Show at Fowler Museum

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We at CARTWHEEL are thrilled that Matjames Metson, one of our featured artists, has been invited to participate in an upcoming exhibition at UCLA’s Fowler Museum in 2014. Previously Matjames has exhibited in group shows at Los Angeles Craft and Folk Museum, the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans, and Billy Shire Fine Arts,  La Luz de Jesus and Coagula Curatorial in Los Angeles.

Matjames is an important through-line for CARTWHEEL. Both CARTWHEEL’s founder Cindy Schwartzstein and I–who hadn’t met each other at the time–were utterly blown away by Matjames’ intricately carved ornate wooden chair, inlaid with vintage photos, pencil stubs, keys and antique hand written letters, topped by huge wasps, which was part of La Luz de Jesus’ 25-year anniversary show and retrospective. We were both charmed by Matjames’ sweetness and his skill as an artist–he also creates graphic novels detailing his experiences surviving Hurricane Katrina and his subsequent relocation to Los Angeles.

Independently of each other, Cindy and I both began championing Matjames. I wrote about him for Firedoglake.com, and Cindy began to develop plans for a show, along with making him part of the CARTWHEEL collection. Then I met Cindy in June of this year and joined the CARTWHEEL team–our mutual love of Matjames’ work was a factor in that, I’m sure–and was thrilled to learn that Matjames, now a featured CARTWHEEL artist, was part of our first art auction/fundraiser for Surfers’ Healing (Cindy’s charity of choice), and that our website launch was designed around Matjames’ first solo show at Coagula Curatorial.

For the Coagula show, CARTWHEEL provided the installation and the promotion/PR, and set up a creative commons Flickr account for media use which shows all of his work. And and we haven’t stopped there!  CARTWHEEL has a series of events planned with Matjames, including an exclusive gallery show/studio tour in November. If you would like to be included, please email us atinfo@CARTWHEELart.com.

Our CARTWHEEL Flickr page shows all of Matjames’ work available for sale through CARTWHEEL, while our gallery shop page presents several works in detail. You can emailcindy@CARTWHEELart.com to purchase works and get more information about Matjames.

Matjames’ artwork displays sensitivity, strengths,and wonder, all qualities inherent in Matjames himself. We hope you’ll explore his artwork and read the articles about him and understand why we at CARTWHEEL think he such a gem. And we look forward to seeing you at his upcoming events and at the Fowler in 2014!

The chair that started it all.

Matjames signing the retrospective catalog at La Luz de Jesus 25th anniversary.

1 Comment

  1. Keith Dugas
    October 20, 2012

    “Three Wasps” is a magical piece. It’s the reason I introduced myself to Matjames in the first place, which led to this blog post:

    http://krossd-art.blogspot.com/2011/11/artist-spotlight-matjames-metson.html

    which led to me meeting Cindy…
    which led to me writing for Cartwheel…
    which led to me meeting Lisa…

    Yep, magical bloody chair!

    Reply

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