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Matt Lamb - Gallery Installation Matt Lamb - Gallery Installation
The gallery carves another notch in the history of art with the first retrospective of paintings by Matt Lamb. Dating from 1990, the show includes 26 of the self-taught artist’s expressionistic oils. The later works, particularly the large animal paintings, are superb examples of Lamb at his best: astonishing painterly effects and deep glazing from his unique use of blowtorch and other unorthodox techniques.
Click here to see the gallery installation.
Click here to read the exhibition's press release.

Matt Lamb Matt Lamb
The most recent developments in the evolution of Matt Lamb's paintings are expressionistic abstractions. Inspired by sections of his highly successful series of works depicting various creatures of his imagination, the abstract series has become another of the self-taught artist’s accomplishments. Their impastoed, coruscating surfaces, achieved by blowtorch, wire brush and other personally developed techniques, achieve an extraordinary depth of color and dynamic sense of movement. Click here to see the artwork.

Irish American Artist Matt Lamb
One of the most significant aspects of this Irish American Artist's oeuvre is his amazing panoply of creatures. According to art historian Dr. Carol Damian, “These visionary images express a myriad of ideas as they metamorphosize from plant to animal to human to spiritual levels of existence... they become the vehicles of his exploration into such themes as duality, harmony, life and death, the environment, the cosmos, and social injustice...In fragmented narratives, they bring his life’s experiences, with their endless quandaries, to light.”
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self-taught artist Matt Lamb
People, animals, flowers: for Matt Lamb, a self-taught artist; they are all as one, in the sense that all are living organisms produced by an all-powerful, loving creator. His bouquets of flowers hold a particular significance: “My work is about the spirit, life, death, resurrection and how we react as people to the events that are brought to our attention. With the information that we receive we can be sad and glad, joyful, sorrowful, harsh and pleasurable all at the same time.” Click here to see the artwork.

Matt Lamb Matt Lamb
One of Matt Lamb's single figures features outstretched arms, symbolizing the artist’s belief that we all should love one another. An Indian chief suggests an ideal world in which man is in harmony with unspoiled nature. The Irish American artist adds, however, that the Indian’s innocence is only a cultural stereotype that must be confronted if we are to be self-aware, and that his image confronts viewers to become explorers of their own cultural consciousness.
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Matt Lamb Matt Lamb
The various figures in his paintings—the artist refers to them as “spirits” — are as real to him as anyone. “You can call them ghosts or you can call them angels, I call them spirits. The figures are everyone and no one, they are contemporary and from the ages of time...My art is an exploration into that great unexplored region we call the subconscious,” Matt Lamb states. In the words of Georgia O’Keefe, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for.” Click here to see the artwork.

self-taught artist Matt Lamb
One of the other symbols often found in Matt Lamb’s paintings include umbrellas, representing a sheltering home of peace, tolerance, understanding and hope. “All the graces of heaven flow under the umbrella, all we have to do is stand under it and receive,” Matt Lamb explains. Another is a ladder, indicating the challenge to do one’s best, to exert one’s greatest effort. A top hat symbolizes a crown, suggesting a spiritual leader. Structures with various religious symbols remind us of Lamb’s themes: life, death, and rebirth.
Click here to see the artwork.