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Matt Haffner: Dreams of A Sleeping Giant
10am - 5pm
2008/2009 Working Artist Project
Matt Haffner is a 2008/2009 Working Artist Project Fellow selected by Carter Foster, the Curator of Drawings from The Whitney Museum of Art.
About the Exhibition:
Matt Haffner: Dreams of a Sleeping Giant
“For this new body of work I wanted to bring the element of scale from my ephemeral public installations, and the temporary nature of large paper pieces into the environment of the museum space. The large-scale works in this exhibition, similar to many of my earlier works, deal with ideas of sensational simplicity, or the use of techniques that use a minimal amount of materials (simply x-acto cut paper). These materials are accessible and familiar, but by combining these ordinary materials with innovative technique and a richly layered conceptual narrative, they then transcend their everyday associations into something sensational.”
– Matt Haffner
About the Artist:
Matt Haffner (b. 1969 in Akron, Ohio) is an Atlanta artist who received his BFA from University of Akron and his MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. His photo-based works on panel explore ambiguous narratives derivative of film noir and comic books. Haffner is well known for his large-scale public art works. These wheat-pasted images on the exterior and interior walls of public buildings evoke ideas about and also reference techniques of graffiti and ephemeral street art. His solo exhibitions include the Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Lyons Wier-Ortt Contemporary, New York, NY; Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA; Akron Center Art Gallery, Akron, OH; and Temple Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.
In 2004, he was selected for the Forward Arts Foundation’s Emerging Artist of the Year Award and the opportunity to exhibit solo at the Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta. Haffner was a 2008/2009 Working Artist Project fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and in 2009 he exhibited Dreams of a Sleeping Giant at MOCA GA. His work is included in MOCA GA’s permanent collection as well as other institutions, including Temple University, Alston & Bird LLP, King and Spalding LLP, Angle Irish Bank, and the University of Akron. Haffner is currently the head of the photography department at Kennesaw State University.
More info on Matt Haffner can be found here.