MATTHEW KIRK
MK ULTRA

October 27th - December 22nd

FIERMAN presents MK ULTRA, a solo exhibition by Matthew Kirk. It is the artist’s third solo show with the gallery and his first in our new, larger exhibition space. Known for his inventive use of nontraditional art making materials, Kirk here presents new painting and sculpture building on his previous work and in new directions, imbued with his signature language of mark-making and imagery reflecting his relationship to his own Navajo heritage and identity. 

Anchoring the exhibition is The Division Game, a wall-mounted sculptural depiction of an abstracted warrior figure comprised of re-used painted plywood and metal-hinging hardware. Slightly larger than human scale, the figure appears both static and in motion, as if flanged by fabric blowing in the wind, fusing Boccioni’s Futurism with archetypal cultural imagery of the Native American. Kirk’s work often explores the space between hegemonic American visual image of the Native and his lived experience, exploiting the hackneyed to both embrace and question imposed cultural tropes. The plywood itself is covered in the abstract visual language Kirk has honed over the past fifteen years of his career. Division Game is the first in a series of large cut-out works created from the physical components of his Upstate studio; the plywood was cannibalized from the floor and walls of the small building. It is the second such structure Kirk has built, inhabited as a studio, and re-used, following his Burnt Water Cabin in 2013. 

Kirk has for years repurposed construction materials in his practice, from his original sheetrock paintings to his tar roofing paper weavings. Also on view are a suite of abstract, shaped wooden wall works using the same repurposed studio wood, as well as new paintings constructed on insulation foam. Kirk’s singular palette is informed by the color of the insulation foam - be it seafoam, lavender, or anthracite - as both a personal challenge and an upending of hierarchies, as each color signifies a unique commercial use. In both the wood and foam works, Kirk employs a wide range of media and techniques to treat the materials, including burning, carving, shooting the surfaces with a Nerf gun, and playing with a multitude of paint types. Completing the tableau is Old Man Horse, a painted canvas draped through a regulation metal basketball hoop. Kirk has turned to basketball often in the past decade, playfully employing the simple visual pun of the basket in homage to artists he reveres such as Hammons and GIlliam. 

Matthew Kirk (b. 1978, Ganado, AZ) lives and works in New York. He has had solo exhibitions at FIERMAN, NY (2018, 2021); Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY (2019, forthcoming 2022); Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR (2021); Makasiini Contemporary, Turku, Finland (2018); Louis B. James, NY (2012, 2016), among others. He is a 2019 recipient of the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. His work is in the collections of the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; the Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN; the Forge Collection, Taghkanic, NY, among others.