SURFACE TREATMENT: Surplus

It is difficult not to be struck with a joyous “schools out!” feeling when encountering the works in this solo exhibit by Tom Matthews. The playful spirit is wholly emitted from groups of colorful used school chairs, imbued with the spirits of those who once sat in them. “Surplus” is currently on display at the STC Art Gallery.

Matthews has created groupings/arrangements of plastic chairs that reflect whimsy, dignity, or reckless ambition, depending on which group you look at. He also shows large powdered graphite frottage drawings. But it’s the chairs we love. They possess a bold energy bordering on projected identity.

Using mechanically reproduced pedestrian items such as used school chairs to construct sculpture, Matthews has created surprisingly evocative art works. Rather than altering the chairs, he has altered their context by orchestrating their orientation into rhythmic patterns of formal symmetry, transforming them from utilitarian functional objects into conceptual formal sculpture.

Matthews states, “I feel a sense of redemption and rescue with these objects, and view the sculptures created with them as the summation of a sculptural equation. I feel I’m linking the past lives of each item to the pieces I create. I am recycling discarded items, which touched numerous human lives, both physically and mentally.”

In the entrance area, a complex and enthusiastic chair orchestration appears to emulate the elegant nautilus, or was it just trying to do a somersault? It’s hard to resist perceiving these works as living entities. The colors suggest a playful quality and Matthews has demonstrated a fine sensitivity to this expressive element. The nautilus-form chair orchestration is comprised of blues and greens, yellows and orange. Happy excitement.

Contrastingly, a multi-tiered orchestration of chairs emerging downward in a regimented single file from a corner of the gallery is more sedate, tempered with the inclusion of reliable brown chairs. All sculptural works in this show use the title, used school chairs, which makes references to individual pieces tricky.

Orchestrations behaving as wall pieces take increased advantage of the formal possibilities of factory production. These sculptures display the advantageous repetition of the precise modular units, their shadow-shapes creating complex and ethereal counterpoints to the solid objects.

Matthews has created a series of works that speak not only of the value of the discarded object, but of the energy and independent life that good sculpture should embody.

“Most people wouldn’t take a second look at the objects I use to create sculpture,” said Matthews. “But when I look at these school chairs, I see them as metaphors for our educational system, a vehicle for social commentary and ultimately sculptural objects waiting to be refigured.”

If you don’t get a chance to see “Surplus” this summer, mark your calendars: a closing reception will be held September 16, from 6-8pm.

“Surplus,” A Sculpture Exhibition by Tom Matthews

• Where: South Texas College Art Gallery, Bldg. B, Pecan Street campus                                  
• When:   through Sept. 19. Hours, Mon-Thurs 1:30-6:30pm or by appt.
• Contact:  956-872-3488 or http://lag.southtexascollege.edu