portrait of woman feeding unicorn (2005) Painting by Matt Sesow

"Matt Sesow's nightmarish portraits possess a voracious brutality that hits the eyes like sand, but embed in the heart with unexpected wonder"
-- (Timothy Cahill, Albany New York Times Union, 2004)

"Sesow didn't have any formal art training, but his work is gaining recognition in the small but growing world of so-called visionary art. The genre -- sometimes called outsider art, art brut or contemporary folk art -- groups works by self-trained artists who deal with very personal issues, often their own disabilities... Through his art, Sesow worked through the emotional knots created by his childhood accident.... Sesow's paintings communicate the emotional power of his healing. One of his works in the AVAM exhibit, titled "Out of Water," depicts in loose, abstracted brush strokes and bright colors a scuba diver emerging from water. On his goggles is a line with three crosses that Sesow uses to symbolize the trauma of his childhood accident. For years after his hand was amputated Sesow wore prosthetics, but about a year after he started painting, he gained confidence and stopped wearing his artificial hand. Sesow feels freed now that he doesn't have to try to be and look like something he isn't. ..."
-- (Cate Hescox, Reuters News, October 2004 read full interview by clicking here)

"Sesow's explosively colored and powerfuly composed expressionist paintings in this exhibition are broad brushed self-portraits with a compellingly dramatic tension that draws in the viewer. Both 'Setting Sail' and 'Out of Water' capture on canvas and board doubling figures, expressions, and markings-- on the first-- and a powerful head complete with a characteristic Sesow trauma scar marker on the second..."
-- (Tony Harvey... regarding Sesow paintings at 'Holy H2O' AVAM show, Intowner magazine, Washington DC, Oct. 2004)

"(Sesow)...is a master of angular lines and jarring color"
-- (J. Bowers, City Paper Baltimore, Oct. 2004)

"Every stroke (of Sesow's) is like a cannonball hitting the canvas"
--(Chris Warner/Alcove Gallery, Atlanta Magazine, 2004)

"Matt Sesow, whose "Bunny Collector" could hold its own with Grosz, and whose "Hellbound III" posits a universe where Francis Bacon and Edvard Munch are the same."
-- (Las Vegas Mercury, 2003)

"The essential appeal of the outsider spirit in art is robustly exemplified by the compelling impact of a Matt Sesow painting. His finest works tend to gather themselves to lunge at you and take root in unguarded channels of emotion"
--(New Art International, Book Art Press. 2003)

(Regarding paintings done by Sesow for the Hollywood play 'F**king Wasps' about Alfred Kinsey, by Steve Haskell) "The set consisted essentially of a blue piano and several immense paintings by DC-based artist Matt Sesow, which were commissioned by the director for the production. These complex, savage, allegorical portraits not only represented but actually contained the entire psychological subtext of the play. Their vivid, unsettl...

• Nationality: UNITED STATES
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary American Artists