Matt Brackett

figurative oil painting

web : mattbrackett.com // Alpha Gallery, Boston, Mass.

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statement

Matt Brackett is a figurative painter who creates images that explore personal and family narratives. His paintings emerge from a stream of consciousness sketching process that he has used for many years to generate ideas. Built from these sketches and peopled with family members, his most recent series of paintings presents scenes of longing, humor and reflection in scenes from his grandmother's childhood home. In the context of the family's struggle since her death in 2001 until the resulting sale of the ancestral house last June, Brackett's paintings are meant to allow a field of interpretation as they invite the viewers to contemplate a 90-year history of family and place, of memory and imagination, of love and loss.

Brackett was born in Berkeley, CA and lives and works in Somerville, MA. He received a Bachelor's degree in painting from Yale University in 1997 where he was the recipient of the Ethel Childe Walker Prize. His work has been shown nationally in galleries and museums, including the Art Complex Museum, MA; Fort Mason Center, CA; Alpha Gallery, MA; Fitchburg Art Museum, MA; Acacia Gallery, MA; Yale University Art Gallery, CT. He has also been included twice in the juried exhibition in print, New American Painting, issues #38 and #56.

Brackett is the recipient of numerous awards, including grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the George Sugarman Foundation, the Somerville Arts Council, and residencies at Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.