Here’s what I like about Matt Bollinger’s figurative paintings, now hanging at Rodger La Pelle Galleries:
I like the surprising angles and distorted spaces. I like the sometimes unexpected subject matter. I like the narratives, not spelled out but suggested. I like the glimpses into life in his neighborhood and life amongst the young folks in seedy spaces. I like the prehensile foliage. I like the paint.I also like the views framed by walls and windows (left, “After the Party”).
Bollinger is young, and so the large show (all painted in the past year and a half) includes some mere studies and paintings that look not quite finished (he’s going to have to learn to edit these out when he shows). Some of the paintings seem to have been in styles he tried on for size and then let go. But he’s on the verge of nailing what his subject matter is, what fascinates him (right, “The Fall”).
Clearly I wasn’t the only one who liked his work. He sold 20 of his paintings. And one of them had three customers who wanted it.
Bollinger, who hails from Kansas City, Mo., and attended the Kansas City Art Institute, according to gallery owner La Pelle, will also have a few pieces in next month’s show at La Pelle, a group show of artists who hail from the Midwest (left, “Marriage Portrait” with curved floor boards).
I recently wrote about Bollinger’s ink drawings at my neighborhood cafe (see post). Some of those images reappeared in oil at LaPelle’s.bollinger, matt
