Mat Ollig's Blog

[ Home ] [ Resume ] [ Contact & Bio ] [ News ]

My work is not about technical skill, photorealism or representational art. It is about frustration, confusion, reality, lies and deceit. After coming to Italy, I saw for the first time in person many of the paintings and works of art I’ve only seen in books and on the internet. It was there that I discovered the disparity between what I was told and what I saw: they were bigger, brighter, duller and had a completely different effect and feeling overall than what I was expecting. I was filled with excitement, anger, anxiety, but ultimately I felt like I was lied to.

Images generally don’t lie to us, even when paintings sculptures and video are constrained by the online resolution of the computer monitor, there is still a kind of earnest understanding that what we see depicts an original that somehow exists outside of the screen. This assumption is taken for granted and it was this naivety that I wanted to exploit.

I wanted to create paintings that lied about their true identity and what they were. Although I utilized some photorealist techniques, I felt it was important to diversify and discover all the ways an image can be betrayed by the subject matter and how to make the work reflect in on itself. I set out to create paintings which would exploit everything available to the distanced viewer. Everything from the subject matter, title, scale and medium would be exploited to create a false impression, and to discredit the work.

The studies of the pixilated images were very important to show that the paintings could be deceptive despite not having any photographic references. Picture 1.png shows that the addition of a single graphic can destroy an image’s credibility. Even when I implied photorealism, the surrounding area outside of the fictitious artwork should be seen more as a decorative border. Ultimately the work should provoke, question and challenge the presumptions associated with the viewing of a work outside of its original context.

"Study for: Rusted Gears Exhibition"

Oil on Canvas
18½” x 23”
2009

This study is the basis for a larger work to be completed upon my return to the United States and will be as large as the fictitious painting depicted being exhibited. This will give the viewer all the false truths of the painting needed in order to believe that they are looking at something which really exists.

"Construction"

Oil on Canvas
18½” x 27”
2009

This was the result of asking the question of whether the subject matter could completely destroy a painting’s credibility and fortitude. A painting of a poorly documented painting could never be “properly” documented, and any reproduction would also appear as such. In fact, a person’s innate instinct is to ignore the surrounding areas and concentrate on the image within. Without being able to see the surface texture and with the painting’s medium and size equal to the one depicted within the image, we are left with no visual clues to differentiate what is real, and what is not. It is the assumption that the surrounding area is a mistake or oversight, whereas the truth is that it’s calculated for that specific effect.
The fact is that it started off as a painting of a blank canvas, with the painting within being original and existing only in the painting. Ultimately we are left with a reproduction of an imitation of something which only exists in faux facsimile.

Sketchbook
Oil on Canvas
27” x 18½”
2009

Sketchbook started off as a blank page, similarly to how Construction started off as a blank canvas, the “sketch” was then completed from life. As with the rest of the work, the art being depicted exists only in the documentary painting and does not exist as an “original” outside of the work. The imitation of an imitation as an imitation is profoundly interesting to me in that none of it actually exists except in facsimile. Your mind darts back between what you see and what you know and you are left in a psychological hall of mirrors where you are unable to find your way out by simple observation.

"Untitled"
Oil on Canvas
18" x 27"
2009

"Work in Progress"
Oil on Canvas
27"x 18"
2009

"Sleeping Nude"
Oil on Canvas
27" x 18"
2009

Study for: Green Cancer
Oil on Linen
16½” x 19¾”
2009

Designed to be viewed via any number of digital devices, Green Cancer started out as an actual image I digitally manipulated by adding errant lines of code to the image script. This had overarching effects and changed the entire image, much like a few lines of errant DNA will change a healthy cell into malignant cancer. The green shapes which spontaneously appeared are quite reminiscent of the hidden cancer cells I concealed in the twelve foot painting Epilogue: 2007 after learning of my late grandmothers condition.
I’m continually impressed with how simple letters control both biological and digital systems, and how fragile they both are to the smallest of changes.

"Study for: Digital Neoplasm"
Oil On Canvas
23½” x 35½”
2009

This painting is based on several images I created when I adding the word “cancer” to the image script of various photos. Repeating patterns of colors and jagged bands of black and white overtook every image. I combined many of these elements together to create the final composition which will also be repainted larger once I return to the United States. This was created to show that a painting doesn’t simply need to be photorealistic in order to confuse the distanced viewer, the subject matter itself if fully capable of deceit.