About
"Sound of the Trumpet Before the Blast," Matt Kleberg's second exhibition at the Sorry We’re Closed gallery, seems to herald the Apocalypse. Unless it’s the opposite. Or perhaps both.
Indeed, Matt Kleberg's work thrives on duality. In his approach to painting, he seeks to make room for opposing—even contradictory—qualities.
His compositions act as metaphors for human relationships, the mystery of life, or the influence of the external environment on our emotions. Illusion is never far from his work—illusion of belief, adherence, recognition, or identification. Ornamentation, repetition, symmetry, and patterns play a central role in Kleberg’s work, which, much like any system—whether digital, political, emotional, intimate, or one of control—invites us to question this space of illusion.
A painting versus painting, versus itself, versus painting as a whole, versus abstraction, versus representation. A painting opposing itself, blending radiance and darkness, ecstasy and oblivion, balance and collapse—simulating an artificial, presumed three-dimensionality: colorful yet dull, rounded yet sharp. The works borrow formally from architecture, textiles, sacred objects, and even the Sienese school. They seem structured, and yet their empty niches, compressed spaces, and slight distortions call the stability of these structures into question.
We stand before paintings that appear fundamentally constructed yet simultaneously elicit a sense of distrust. These abstract spaces, reminiscent of those in the works of Frank Stella or Ad Reinhardt, also incorporate small window ledges that prevent the space from becoming "purely" abstract. These works feel closer to early Renaissance Italian painting, to the Virgins of Duccio and Giotto—except without the mother or child.
Paintings like unanswered ex-votos, as if awaiting fulfillment before our eyes—eyes hungry for dreams, eager to believe, longing to lose themselves in belief.
"Sound of the Trumpet Before the Blast" is the echo of calm before the storm, the anticipation of an exhilarating event—the moment before a play or concert begins. The idea of an event that has not yet occurred. Waiting, in a sense.
Like a trip to Siena on mushrooms or apocalyptic icons.?A trumpet’s call or a magic trick revealing itself despite its own will.
Tricks or treat.