Matt Condron

Level B

2012

Matt Condron was born in 1967 in Simi Valley, California. Condron is trained to recognize the importance of a moment or the preciousness of a fleeting opportunity. He is captivated by the idea of emptiness, as both a suggestion of solitude and as a state rife with the possibility of change and fulfillment. As a painter, he seeks out familiar, evocative scenes and concentrates on capturing the stillness of an empty room or vacant chair. His paintings can be seen as solitary or as simply aberrant pauses between moments of frantic activity. The works are imbued with a quality of light that brings simple, content-rich objects into sharp focus. Condron attempts to establish not so much a connection to a chair or a room, but the feeling created by the wide embrace of emptiness. Ultimately, Condron creates scenes, a partial representation of real places and a part invention from deep in his mind. The openness of his works invites the viewer to share the moment of quiet with him. By choosing places that seem to have been abruptly vacated, he attempts to awaken a connection to the moment before or to the quietude, he preserves inside himself in the form of memories. He has exhibited in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Boston, New York. His work has been published in The Boston Globe Magazine in Critic's Pick, July 2010, The Artist's Magazine, Riviera Magazine, American Art Collector and New American Paintings. He currently lives and works in Portland.