X-O (Hyland Mather)
'Shapes Making'
28 February - 15 April

X-O collects 'lost objects' from all over the city streets, industrial wastelands, country fields, 
basically from anywhere and everywhere and turns these into beautiful, 
eye-catching compositions that are nostalgic and playful.

click here for available artwork from this show

X-O: "The main game with my 'Lost Object' art is the hunt...sometimes the hunt is very purposeful. I say, 'Ok, need to make some stuff...better go find some other stuff ' and I set out on a mission for it specifically.
Other times, the hunt just 'happens', where I'm cruising along not really looking at all, and some hunk of junk that is just too amazing zips across my visual. The second kind is a tuff hunt because if you just stop to pick up junk you run a big risk of becoming a really gross kind of hoarder.

What is the goal of Shapes Making? For me, I tried to build compositions that are about Shape, Color and Composition and not so much about meaning and representation of everyday objects, i.e. 'Oh that's a house' or 'Oh, Look a Windmill' , or  'Cool Dinosaur' ...I like to made things that are very basic in shape: circle, triangle, square, asterisk, lines... shapes that widely straddle any purposeful added representation on their own. That being said, I can't help but have the representational creep in.  Although they are just painted blocks, 'The City In The Sky' still looks like a city.  Also, sometimes just straight up representational images pop up and I like it...There is a 'Bugler' in one of the small assemblages, and a dude watering in one of the large assemblages etc...oh well.

Generally speaking the things that come out of me creatively are positive and playful.  I know it shows in this work, and so I'm happy overall with it."