Matthew Benedict

Matthew Benedict’s highly original work investigates the historical myth-making of the United States. His paintings, mostly gouaches on wood or paper of medium size, are not only pictures, they present pictures – sometimes even the frame of the source image is painted too. With their reduced, bold and simple colour schemes, they are reminiscent of illustrations in popular history or adventure books. What is special about these depictions is that contemporary views and images based on historical sources are treated in the same way, collapsing a very wide time-span into a visual whole. — Axel Jablonski