Introducing Matthew Cox
Matthew Cox is a Philadelphia-based artist who embraces and joins a variety of media to produce several thematic series of work. Medical x-rays and embroidery, couture and crime, rubber stamps, short -story prose and paint all layer toward a darkly comic and anachronistic impression of the human condition in the twenty-first century.
A 2008 recipient of the Pew Charitable Trusts Fellowship in Painting, Cox studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York and Otis/Parsons in Los Angeles. He exhibits his work internationally and is featured in many prominent collections such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, Progressive Insurance Corporate Art Collection, the Georgetown College Art Gallery and the private collections of Beth Rudin DeWoody, E. John Bullard, Ronnie Brenner and numerous others.
Redefinition of materials motivates Cox to create the embroidered x-rays. By joining the cold, blue, medically technical plastic of the x-ray with the colorful, decorative and tactile embroidery thread each is removed from its original intention and creates a new entity. Handling these media also gives him an opportunity to comment on the ever-increasing presence of photography in contemporary art- by introducing labor over the quick, slickness of film.
In Heartthrobs and Avatars, 2011 – 2012, Cox transports this technique to a new place using iconic heartthrobs from Pop culture such as Snow White and David Bowie and avatars from Eastern religion and Greek mythology such as Krishna and Minotaur. The possible visual imagery is rich, vast and exciting. This new move has also given him an opportunity to physically move out of the rectangle of the x-ray by extending the embroidery upward and outside of the frame.
‘Heartthrob #5, Medusa’
‘Heartthrob #3, Miss Piggy’
‘Heartthrob #2, David Bowie’
Avatar #6, Ganesha [with hairpins]
Avatar #2, Minotaur
‘Heartthrob #6, Pacemaker Barbie
Heartthrob #4, Olive Oyl [with belly button ring]
‘Heartthrob #1, Snow White’
‘Avatar #5, Mercury’
Cox is represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, Packer /Schopf Gallery in Chicago and Widmer and Theodoridis Contemporary in Zurich.
