Riverland Community College

Matthew Winkler’s drawings are an exploration of place. Having recently moved to Minnesota from California, and before that from New Jersey, the artist’s fascination with the urban landscape is revealed through carefully rendered works displaying the varied characters of his subjects. The light and color of Southern California and the gritty density of a New Jersey town are explored in collages and mixed media works that represent Winkler’s interest in both subjective emotional experience and objective formal analysis.

A variety of explorations are exhibited. The artist begins with photographs and direct observation, fragmenting and rearranging the photographs and then drawing from them, and then sometimes cutting up and rearranging the drawings themselves. Problems of memory and representation may be referred to in the use of voids and negative space that infuse the work. The results are often complex and visually intriguing, with areas of realism emerging amidst an overall architectonic, abstracted structure. Some works on transparent paper suggest the overlay of memory when we encounter a new experience.

Matthew Winkler currently lives in Rochester,Minnesota and teaches at Winona State and St. Mary’s University. He graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts from California State University, Long Beach in2011, and has shown his work regularly in the Northeastern U.S. and in Southern California.