Brian Mathus has a solo exhibition at Kettering’s Rosewood Gallery (2655 Olson Drive) March 14 through April 22. The show is called “The expectation of being seen.” An artist’s reception Saturday from 1-3 pm is open to the public.
To read more about Brian, check out this interview from Dayton Artists United:
DAU: OK, Brian Mathus, tell me about yourself.
BM—Well, let’s see. Fun fact. I’ve lived on both sides of the country. I lived in Virginia from the time I was 2 until I was 17, then I moved to Portland.
DAU–Portland Oregon?
BM: Yep. And it’s just like you imagine it. It’s where I found my peeps, people like me. It’s so creative there, and everybody is doing their own thing. They have this guy out there that rides a unicycle in a Darth Vader mask.
DAU—I’ve seen the video!
BM-I lived in Portland until I was 30, and then moved to Dayton.
DAU: Where you became an artist?
BM–I think I was always an artist. I just didn’t know how to be one. I made my first work when I was 17. It was a large-scale work called “crabs in a barrel.” I didn’t know how to stretch a canvas, so I just stapled it to the wall. I gessoed it and got gesso all over the floor. When it came time to take it down it was gessoed to the wall. It actually came off with pieces of the wall on the back.
Years later I worked a frame shop and this woman who worked there help me stretch it into a frame. She complained the whole time about how “this wasn’t how you were supposed to do this.”
DAU—where is it now?
BM—I think it might be at my parents.
DAU—And you’ve been painting ever since? How many works do you think you’ve created?
BM—I don’t know. Over a 1000? I’ve started taking pictures of my work. I’ve sold some, maybe 70 pieces, that I never made a record of.
More of the interview here.
