ArtNet Magazine – Matt Magee: The Gotham Dispatch

Op Art recently has come into focus again, with Bridget Riley’s retrospective at the Dia Art Center in Chelsea and PaceWildenstein showcasing the British painter’s eye-catching canvases. Add Matt Magee to the list of artists who use repetition and color with precision. Magee’s first solo show of paintings just closed at Bill Maynes gallery. The 11 works from 1999 and 2000 are oil on wood panel and collectively contain thousands of circles in various sizes arranged in row after row. Magee’s palette is earthy-electric, with natural subdued tones playing off of vibrant cadmium-infused colors and alternating shades of gray. The paintings immediately bring to mind the Wild West, Aboriginal and Native American artifacts obsessively arranged in meditative compositions. Archaeological digs wind up cleaned and arranged neatly on tables and it is that very sculptural quality which Magee conveys in these quietly humming paintings.