VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Hooks-Epstein Galleries is proud to be opening the 2010-2011 art season with Louisiana artist, Bernard Mattox's, Mapmaker, an exhibition of paintings. The exhibition will open on Saturday, September 11, 2010, with a reception for the artist from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The paintings in Mattox's third solo exhibition, Mapmaker, are an uninterrupted extension of the Sans Souci Chronicles from 2007-08. His formula: get in the studio everday and work (ready or not). In his daily inspiration/preparation, one-man circus, the real trick is to keep the craft (knowledge of materials) and the art (access to memory and imagination) in good order with each other.

Mattox states, "Some days are better than others when the image is before your eyes (landscape, figure and still-life) and the starting point is clear. When the image is "make believe", that point is really no point at all." Hence the reference to mapmaking or as a friend once told him, "You should title your series, One Thing Leads to Another."

Bernard Mattox received his BFA from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, LA and his MFA from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.

Mapmaker continues through October 16, 2010.

Pictured:  Bernard Mattox, Mapmaker #14, 2009, Mixed media & oil on panel, 60 x 48 x 4." (detail above, full image below).