Taj Matumbi, Elizabeth Sheeler

media release: Arts + Literature Laboratory presents exhibitions by Bridge Work Madison participants Elizabeth Sheeler and Taj Matumbi, from Tuesday, November 28, 2023 through Friday, December 22, 2023.

A reception for our Bridge Work Madison exhibitions will be held on Saturday, December 2, 2023, 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm.

Taj Matumbi is an emerging artist, who grew up skateboarding with his older brothers in Northern California. A 2021 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he earned an MFA in painting and drawing and a BFA in ceramics and painting from Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. Matumbi has participated in several national group exhibitions, and his paintings are part of the permanent collections of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama, The Wiregrass Museum of Art Dothan, Alabama, and the Louisiana State University Museum of Art in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Artist statement:

The impetus for this exhibition came from a desire to portray a mythical version of my unknown ancestry with dignity. Thrown aims to explore the uncanny bridge between biography versus myth which feels thematically American in subject. Thrown is a group of paintings I developed from a series of drawings I made back in 2022 which were influenced by the 17th-century European ruling class. In these drawings, I was concerned with depicting abstract portraits of royalty and spectacle. In each piece in Thrown, the viewer is faced with abstract figures in different situations reminiscent of aristocratic high society. These figures embody opulent personas from the era, such as the fool, the prince, and the king. I intended each painting to be a sort of retelling of my ancestors stemming from Africa and Europe captured with my formal and provisional approach to my craft. In addition, this personal yet mythical exploration Thrown addresses different types of representation of people who aren’t portrayed in the historical narrative which has led to Western society.