Matthew Rose spells with scissors and glue. Indeed, the wide range of works that come out of the artist’s studio are his way of making the experience of seeing a full and intensely visual activity. Matthew Rose’s artworks have been exhibited in Europe, Asia and the United States for more than 20 years, and his art is collected privately and by public collections.

SPELLING WITH SCISSORS
In November 2006, more than 800 individually produced collage works, were installed at The Capsule Gallery in Denver, Colorado. This piece of hundreds of pieces details the story that took some two years (and then some) to be fully told. The installation functions as a phantasmagorical open book in which the viewer immerses her/himself reading and rewriting the narrative of the installation. It is a kind of hallucinogenic wallpaper, and in fact covers the space from wall to wall and ceiling to floor.

A PERFECT FRIEND
With A Perfect Friend, a series that evolved out of a book and accomplished in the month of December (2003), the artist reinvigorated and personalized surrealism, combining vintage and popular images of the 1920s and 1930s often with children’s science drawings from the 1950s, photographs from grammar books, and bits of detritus he found. The “stories” that issued from each of these pages were ink jet printed.

The collage works mix sex and promiscuity, chemistry and character: A snarling English setter’s head is rooted firmly to the elegant torso of a 17th-century Dutchman, in others, a man plumbs his own vagina, a startled hostess balances a head of plates on her neck, a swan reads a libretto while at the opera, and a porn queen balances a kitten on her hair do.

“The prints are reminiscent of surrealist great Hans Bellmer's dolls series, the photography of Claude Cahun, the leggy dancing girl collage by Georges Hugnet,” wrote Omaha Pulp editor and art critic, Leslie Prisbell, when these large works were first shown at Gallery 73 in Omaha, Nebraska in 2003. “Rose is a surrealist in every sense of the word, including the presence of unbridled desire in his work. Sure, a woman's arm might be attached to a lobster claw, but the composition is, well, sexy as hell.”

“A Perfect Friend,” with text additions, has been published in part by Versal 4 (Wordsinhere/Amsterdam, 2006). A complete color book of the 110 collage works is planned before the end of the 21st century. He is currently fiddling with a sister book, “Days Like These,” begun in Venice during an artist residency grant with the Emily Harvey Foundation.

REREADING/REWRITING
Because Matthew Rose is also a writer, his attachment to the book, writing and words is profound. Rose, author of the somewhat annoying fiction, Plan B, produces his own “books” and personal stories out of found materials, such as the hand-painted and collage volumes BOYS LIFE, GOD, and the unbound cardboard novel, The Sea in October. These stories rhyme fragments, an effect that plays on and mimics consciousness—the rush of quotidian effluvia trapped for a second or two in the grate of the mind.

In another series, Paintings from 1999, only the multi-lingual titles of paintings from Rembrandt, Vermeer, Munch and others are seen (enlarged and silk screened), and the titles cascade in multiple meanings across history and cultures. One of the 13 sets of the prints is permanently installed in The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida.

THE SCRIBBLE DRAWINGS
Drawing was the subject of the 2004 scribble drawings that, in their all-over Ab Ex sensibility maps out
a corner of the 20-year Abstract Expressionist movement. Here, the artist spent a Christmas season figuring out how everyday objects, thanks to Jasper Johns, put the drippers to bed. The Scribble Drawings were first shown at the Affordable Art Fair in New York (June, 2006) and will be showcased
at the Art on Paper Fair at the Royal College of Art in London (February, 2007)

ACADEMICS
Matthew Rose graduated from Brown University, in 1981, with a degree in Semiotics. He also studied film at the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently lives and works in Paris, France.

Matthew Rose Biography  
1980    Coursework, Film Studies, Rhode Island School of Design  
1982    B.A. in Semiotics, Brown University  

Selected Exhibitions 
2008   The End of the World. Wm Turner gallery, Atlanta, GA
2008   A Kick in the Kunst. Galerie Rossella Junck, Berlin, Germany
2007   The Whole Truth. Gallery in the Fields/Fran Bull Gallery, Brandon, VT 
2007   20|21 International Art Fair. London, UK (Art Vitam) 
2006   LA To Paris. Anyway Gallery, Berlin, Germany 
2006   IVY at The Louvre, Paris, France 
2006   Anonymous Drawings. Bluetenweiss Gallery, Berlin, Germany 
2006   Herzschmerz. Tristesse Deluxe, Berlin, Germany 
2006   Spelling With Scissors. Capsule Gallery, Denver, CO 
2006   Lullabies & Alibis. Apsara, Paris, France 
2006   The Affordable Art Fair. New York, NY (Art Vitam) 
2006   The Blooze Show. Papilles, Paris, France 
2006   Real pARTy Benefit. Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT 
2006   Re-reading the Comix, Again. Sutter Gallery, San Francisco, CA 
2006   Full Circle/Random Journey (Book exhibition). University of Northampton, UK 
2005   Planting Cut Flowers. Pleins Feux Sur Ivry, Ivry-sur-Seine, France 
2005   Paris/LA (curated by Whitey Flag). Cache Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA 
2005   For Everyone and No One (Mail Art). Museum Of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL 
2005   Quixote (400 Years). Talavera la Real, Spain 
2005   Portable Art/Portable Peace. Koa Gallery, Honolulu, HI 
2005   “Wish You Were Here IV”. A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY 
2005   Moonstruck. Hong Kong Artist's Biennale 2005, Club 64, Hong Kong 
2005   Ouverture, Jewish Artists. Art Vitam Gallery, Miami, FL 
2005   IVY Artists. Ivy Gallery, Paris, France 
2005   Collage Series. Art Vitam Gallery, Miami, FL 
2005   Axis of Evil. Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA;
...........Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL 
2005   Collages, Objets, Mauvaises Idees. Ivry-sur-Seine, France 
2005   Baker’s Dozen, New Zealand 
2005   Post Modern Trends From Around The World. Hanoi, Vietnam 
2004   The Art of Books and Writing. Art Vitam Gallery, Miami, FL 
2004   Mystery Masters Post Card Show. Ritz Carlton Hotel, Miami, FL 
2004   The 4th Dimension. Art Pool, Budapest, Hungary 
2004   Kunst Macht Dick. Factor 44, Antwerpen, Belgium 
2004   Postcards from the Edge. Brent Sikkema Gallery, New-York City, NY 
2004   Draw drawing. London Biennale, Gallery 32, London, United Kingdom 
2004   A Flame for the Olympics (curated by Ianna Andreadis). Athens, Greece 
2004   Wish you were here III. A.I.R Gallery, New-York City, NY 
2003   The Merry Merry Christmas Show. Clemence Heugel, Paris, France 
2003   Postcards from the Edge / Visual AIDS Benefit. Galerie Lelong, NY 
2003   Kyoto Biennale (Slowness: Shozo Shimamoto / Mail Art). Kyoto, Japan 
2003   Fade To Pink / Lizbekistan Book Launch: Marriage Performance. Paris, France 
2003   Amazing Festival, Reading the Contents of My Wallet. Paris, France 
2003   Stencils: The Art of Negative Spaces. The Crucible Steel Gallery, San Francisco, CA 
2003   Unoccupied Territories. K&S Gallery, Berlin, Germany 
2003   Passion. Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME 
2002   Lost & Found. Aebel, Mayers & McHale, Paris, France 
2002   Internationales Mail Art-Projekt. Loreley 2002, Germany 
2002   Paintings. Boca Raton Museum, Boca Raton, FL (Print Series) 
2002   Scared But Fresh. Manifesta (Free Manifesta/Sal Randolf) Frankfurt, Germany 
2002   Collages, Max’s (group show). San Francisco, CA 
2002   Girlfriends. Godefroy de Virieu, Paris, France 
2002   More Girlfriends. Au Vin des Rues, Paris, France 
2002   CornuCopiae. De Garage, Space for Contemporary Art, Mechelen, Belgium 
2001   Buddha Pest Control. Factor 44, Budapest, Hungary 
2001   Number 7. Factor 44, Antwerp, Belgium 
2000   Morgan, Donovan & Rose. Factor 44, Antwerp, Belgium 
2000   Happy Birthday Johannes (Mail Art/Catalog). Mainz, Germany 
1999   Paintings. Mayers, Aebel & McHale, Paris, France 
1999   50 States (Mailed). Gallery Expresso, Savannah, GA 
1999   New Zoo (with Keith Donovan & Kathryn Greene). Galerie Eof, Paris France 
1998   Bed Room/Bath Room Gallery (Ulla Kartunen), Paris, France 
1998   100 Collages. Jean-Louis Cleret, Paris, France 
1997   FIAC, Happy Hour. Galerie Elisabeth Valleix, Paris, France 
1997   Bedroom/Bathroom Gallery, Paris, France 
1997   Dumb Bunny, www.lizbekistan.com 
1997   Cité Internationale des Arts. Group Show, Paris, France