Matt Demers

We’ve already got a George
Oil
ID Number: 0166

Matt Demers is a visual artist who resides and works in Gardiner, Maine. His fascination with the overlooked and misfiled fragments of the past is evident in his mixed-media paintings that incorporate acrylic, spray paint, house paint, and collaged ephemera. Drawing is critical to his artistic practice, and his drawings on post-its, the backs of work orders, or vintage writing pads fill his studio and notebooks.

Demers’ paintings are abstract and emphasize line, suggesting the all-at-onceness of careworn antiques, graffiti, medieval armor, and music. His works are about everything at once, snagged and stacked over the surface, the very pile-up of contemporary life, and the way it feels to think about it all together. In his sketchbook, Demers writes a list of influences that includes looping line drawings and words like “growth, change, music, rhythm, lego, comics, happy/sad, landscape, processing, observing, masks, swirling, accumulations, piles of stuff.”

Demers has had a variety of experiences that shape the various techniques and media that make their way into his paintings, including being an art and antiques collector, sign maker, gravedigger, embroiderer, antiques dealer, and graphic artist. He is drawn to the meanings that odd objects, forgotten texts, and torn treasures carry with them, and his paintings reflect this fascination.