Matthew Kluber

Kluber's work investigates the intersection of painting and digital technology, locating itself at the point where the physical world (traditional media) meets the virtual world (new media). At this intersection the ephemeral, un-located space of digital video is attached, by means of projection, to the fixed object of a painting, illuminating it with a new color space, code-derived content, and the element of time to construct a hybrid pictorial space. 

The paintings are composed of linear, geometric elements that reference the narrow, colorful, horizontal bands of data - signaling a crash - that had frequently filled the screen of Kluber’s former computer. That downside of digital technology, its flaws and defects, provided a unique visual experience and became an unexpected, rich source of imagery. The thin horizontal stripes refer to that imploding data, while the picture plane alludes to the computer screen – resulting in a carefully edited version of a visual phenomenon normally associated with the breakdown of a system.

The patterns created by the programmed projections, while not technically ‘random’, are never repeated.  This kinetic aspect lends a soothing, hypnotic effect to the visual experience.

Kluber received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and his MFA from the

University of Iowa.  His thirty-year career has seen his work exhibited in galleries and museums from Santa Fe to Shanghai.  His work can be found in public and private collections including The Austin Museum of Art, the Des Moines Art Center, the Portland Art Museum and the Figge Art Museum, among others.

Light + Paint

Matthew Kluber's work investigates the intersection of painting and digital technology, locating itself at the point where the physical world (traditional media) meets the virtual world (new media). Born in 1965,he placed at this intersection the ephemeral, un-located space of digital video is attached, by means of projection, to the fixed object of a painting, illuminating it with a new color space, code-derived content, and the element of time to construct a hybrid pictorial space.

Matthew Kluber's paintings are composed of linear, geometric elements that reference the narrow, colorful, horizontal bands of data - signaling a crash - that had frequently filled the screen of my (former) computer. This downside of digital technology, its flaws and defects, provided a unique visual experience and became an unexpected, rich source of imagery. The thin horizontal stripes refer to that imploding data, while the picture plane alludes to the computer screen – resulting in a carefully edited version of a visual phenomenon normally associated with the breakdown of a system.

The projections involve an innovative use of both hardware and software by:
a). Recontextualizing the use of hardware (digital projector) by transforming it into a painting tool. The carefully manipulated light of the projector upon the surface of the painting creates a new, hybrid color space. This new color space is the combination of subtractive color, the way we view a traditional painting, and of additive color, the mixture of red, blue and green light of the digital projector.
b). The projections are created with custom software written in C++ and Open GL, a powerful graphics tool used primarily to create video games. This software allows me to accomplish a wide range creative functions such as: the ability to crop the area of the projection to fit the exact dimensions of a painting, to manipulate the timing and fading of the projector; and to play multiple layers of video and motion graphics in specific areas of a painting. Additionally, encoded variables ensure that certain layers of imagery never play the same way twice. These layered, time-based, projections become painterly, cinematographic effects that animate and extend the surface of the paintings.

Reference points for this work come from my interest in the historic changes brought about in art by the social and cultural upheavals and rapid developments in science and technology in the 1960’s and 70’s. These changes compelled a new generation of artists to address emotional disengagement, formal rigor, and anonymity of authorship in order to escape the art that had reached its height of influence in the form of Abstract Expressionism. In particular, I have had a long interest in the color-field painters Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis and Morris Louis; as well as light and space artists James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Doug Wheeler and Dan Flavin. They sought to dematerialize the art object; their work diffused the luminous effect of color so that the boundaries of the frame and material substance seemed almost incidental to the perceived intensities of continuous color and light sensation.

Visual values:

My grandfather attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and my father was a landscape architect, so I was around adults that both practiced and valued visual language. I’ve made drawings from an early age, and I always felt I would be someone that would make images. [Kluber received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and his MFA from the University of Iowa.]

Visual impressions:

My sister is eight years older than I am, and in the 60s she had very pop-culture-inspired decorations in her room—bedcovers, drapes, pillows, clothes, album covers, posters, etc. Those wonderful, psychedelic colors and patterns left very important visual impressions on me.

Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver—or is it?:

I have had a long interest in the color-field painters Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis and Morris Louis, as well as light and space artists James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Doug Wheeler, and Dan Flavin. They sought to dematerialize the art object. Their work diffused the luminous effect of color so that the boundaries of the frame and material substance seemed almost incidental to the perceived intensities of continuous color and light sensation.

The effervescence of efflorescence:

For my paintings I love fluorescent colors and to match them with traditional colors—to explore new relationships. The paintings are then paired with a custom digital projection. The result creates a new kind color space: the combination of subtractive color, the way we view a traditional painting—and of additive color. The mixture of red, blue, and green light of the digital projector.

Abstract’s pull on you:

It is visual form furthest away from language.

Abstract’s appeal to others:

They are compelled to access the part of their brain that contains no language but provides rich, complex, lasting visual information.

Midwesterner for life:

I live in Iowa. I grew up here. I have always felt free to make whatever kind of work that my knowledge, sensibility, and skill would allow. Whether or not that would have been different anywhere else I can’t say. [Kluber’s work, in and outside Iowa, can also be found in The Contemporary Austin, the Des Moines Art Center, the Portland Art Museum and the Figge Art Museum.]

Education

MFA, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1991

BFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1987

Selected Exhibitions

Op Infinitum: “The Responsive Eye” Fifty Years After, Part I, Part II, American Op Art in the 60’s, David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2015

Furlong Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI, chroma[a]chroma, 2014

David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Projected2, 2014

Moreau Center for the Arts, St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN, 2014 

Art Miami, David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2013

Filmambiente: International Film Festival,  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cool Stories for When the Planet Gets Hot, 2013

David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Projected, 2013

Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York, NY, Cool Stories for When the Planet
Gets Hot, 2013

Art Miami, David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2012

Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO, Repeat, 2012

David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Matthew Kluber: Color Interference, 2012 

The Painting Center, New York, Natural/Constructed Spaces, curators, Marianne
Van Lent and Galen Cheney (catalog), 2012

Zane Bennet Contemporary Project Space, Santa Fe, NM, Currents:
Santa Fe International New Media Festival, 2012

Hilliard University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA, East/West: Contemporary American Prints, Traveled to University of Central Florida Art Gallery, Central Connecticut State University, Art Gallery, Ameen Art
Gallery Nicholls State University (LA), CU Museum of Art University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, 2012

The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, Cedar Rapids, IA, The Hour Grows Late, (painting/projection; temporary installation) 2012 

Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO, Not Here No There, curator, Hesse McGraw, 2011

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, Matthew Kluber, curator, Jeff Fleming, (brochure), 2011

Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Shanghai, China, Animamix Biennial:
Metaphors of Un/Real, curator, Victoria Lu, 2010

Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, John F. Simon, Jr. and Matthew Kluber: Hybrid Media (catalog), 2010

Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, Borderland Abstraction,
Curator, Hesse McGraw (brochure), 2010

Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI, Matthew Kluber:
Half-Day Closing, 2010

FOCUS09/Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, Cool Stories for When the Planet Gets Hot II, curators,Corinne Erni, New York and Anne-Marie Melster, Spain; traveled to: Valencia Museum of Illustration and Modernity, Valencia, Spain: Pavilion City Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark, UN Climate Conference COP 15, 2009

Grand Rapids Art Museum, MI, So Much Water So Close To Home, (film installation/ exterior projection), 2009

Newport Mill, Newport, NH, H2O: Film on Water, 2009

Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, CA, ATA Film & Video
Festival, 2009

Landmark Arts, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, Beyond Printmaking, 2008

The Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY, Big Ideas: The Teeny Tiny Show, 2008

Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, Perfect with Pixel, curator, Shaurya Kumar 2008

Gallery One Visual Arts Center, Ellensburg, WA, Vertical Hold, curators, Justin Colt Beckman and Andrew Kaufman, 2008

Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, Painting Process, curators, Jaqueline Bekiaris, Maria Silvestri, 2007

ICON Gallery, Fairfield, IA, Large Works Group Show, 2007

ACT Inc. Iowa City, IA, New Commissions in the Collection, Matthew Kluber: Data is Nature, 2006

Kuper Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Visualizing TRANS, 2006

Lakeview Museum of Art, Peoria, IL, Selections from the Permanent Collection,
2006

Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, Faculty Biennial, 2006

McCarthy Arts Center, St. Michaels College, Colchester, VT, Matthew Kluber: Paintings, 2005

Sisneros Fine Art, Tulsa, OK, Group Show, 2005

Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, Faculty Biennial, 2004

Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, Mixed Signals, curator, Colin Smith, (brochure) 2003

Eaton-Buchan Gallery, Coe College, Cedar Rapids IA, Matthew Kluber: Firewire Pictures, 2003

Joseph Nease Gallery, Kansas City, MO, Matthew Kluber, Nate Fors, 2002

Janalyn Hanson White Gallery, Mount Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, IA, Solo Show, 2002

123 Watts Gallery, New York, NY, Summer Group Exhibition, 2001

Joseph Nease Gallery, Kansas City, MO, Group Show, 2001

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, By Design IA01, curator,
Chris Gilbert (catalogue), 2001

Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, Patient Process, curators, Lesley Wright and Donald Doe (catalog), 2001

Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, Midlands Invitational, curators, Janet Farber and John Schloder (catalogue), 2000

Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA, Matthew Kluber: Paintings, 2000

Blanden Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA, Matthew Kluber: Paintings, (brochure), 1999

Jason Peng Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, Matthew Kluber, David Dawson, Priscilla Sage, 1999

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, Iowa Artists 1999

Klein Art Works, Chicago, IL, Surface: Dot, Dash & Grid, 1998

Rudolph Poissant Gallery, Houston, TX, Group Show, 1998

Percival Gallery, Des Moines, IA, Abstract Images, 1998

Clemson University, Clemson, SC, Graphics Beyond Technique, 1998

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, Iowa Artists 1998

Brunnier Art Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, College
of Design Faculty, 1998

The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA, Seventy-first International Print Exhibition, curator, Peter VonZiegesar, 1998 

Laband Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles
Printmaking Society Fourteenth Annual Exhibition, 1997

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, Iowa Artists 1997

Brunnier Art Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, College of Design Faculty, 1996

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, Iowa Artists from the
Permanent Collection, 1996

Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX, Accessing a Future, curator: Jean
Graham, 1994

University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA, Contemporary Drawings and Monoprints, curator, Jo Ann Conklin, 1993

Percival Gallery, Des Moines, IA, Matthew Kluber, Paintings and Drawings,
1992

Kiski School, Saltsburg, PA, Matthew Kluber: Paintings and Monotypes,
1991

State University of New York, Purchase, NY, Five Contemporary
Printmakers, 1991

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, Iowa Artists 1991

Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX, At the Edge II: Contemporary Prints
and Drawings 1990

Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, Los
Angeles Printmaking Society Eleventh Annual Exhibition, 1990

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, Iowa Artists, 1990

Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX, At the Edge: Contemporary Prints and Drawings, 1989

Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA, 39th North American Print
Exhibition, 1987

Woods Gerry Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, BFA
Exhibition, 1987


Public and Corporate Collections

Estée Lauder Companies International, Inc., New York, NY

ACT, Inc., Iowa City, IA

Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA

University of Colorado Art Museum, Boulder, CO

Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI

Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR

Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA

University of Louisiana Art Museum, Lafayette, LA

Lakeview Museum of Art, Peoria, IL

Blanden Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA

University of Iowa, Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa, City, IA

 
Grants/Awards

Mellon Foundation Grant, Digital Bridges, 2015

Furbush Faculty Scholar Sabbatical, Grinnell College, 2011- 12

National Science Foundation Grant, Reformulating Media Computation With
Functional Programming, Scripting, and Design Principles; with Co-Principal
investigators, Sam Rebelsky PhD and Janet Davis PhD, Grinnell College, 2007-09

Harris Fellowship for Light + Paint, Grinnell College, 2007-0