Matt Condron

Born in 1967, Matt Condron spent his early childhood between the locales of Simi Valley, Torrance and Lomita, CA. By age 12 he was to trade the Los Angeles cultural crossroads for rural, small town Connecticut. This major geographical upheaval, precipitated by his parents’ shared desire to be closer to their families living in NY, was the first of many personal migrations for Condron over the ensuing years. Since his Twenties, NYC, rural Montana, Arizona, Seattle, San Francisco and even Mexico have each been called home for him. It is partly from this kaleidoscopic resume that the artist sensibility Condron has developed over time comes from. A passionate observer, the 35mm camera was Condron’s first vehicle that gave voice to his unique and sensitive vision.

Having spent many years as a photographer, Matt Condron is trained to recognize the importance of a moment or the preciousness of a fleeting opportunity. He is captivated by the idea of emptiness, as both a suggestion of solitude and as a state rife with the possibility of change and fulfillment. As a painter, he seeks out familiar, evocative scenes and concentrates on capturing the stillness of an empty room or vacant chair. His paintings can be seen as solitary, or as simply aberrant pauses between moments of frantic activity.

The works are imbued with a quality of light that brings simple, content-rich objects into sharp focus. Condron attempts to establish not so much a connection to a chair or a room, but the feeling created by the wide embrace of emptiness. By choosing places that seem to have been abruptly vacated, he attempts to awaken a connection to the moment before, or to the quietude he preserves inside himself in the form of memories. Ultimately, Condron creates scenes—part representation of real places, part invention from deep in his mind. The openness of his works invites the viewer to share the moment of quiet with him.