Beginning in November, The Bass Harbor Memorial Library will display a series of paintings by Matt Demers.
Matt Demers is a visual artist living and working in Gardiner, Maine. A quiet person, Demers closely observes the fevered and cross-talking world, absorbing and collecting its art and ephemera, and learning or imagining the meanings that odd objects, forgotten texts, and torn treasures carry with them. Demers is or has been an art and antiques collector, sign maker, gravedigger, embroiderer, antiques dealer, and graphic artist; those experiences shape the various techniques and media that make their way into his paintings. He is drawn to the misfiled and overlooked fragments of the past and the ways they might shine if rightly considered.
In the series displayed at the library this November, Demers has repurposed discarded book covers into backdrops for his paintings. He says about the work, “These paintings have been a way for me to incorporate my love of old objects into my practice. I like the contrast of the colors and marks of my paintings with the texture and patina of these book covers. The paintings feel simultaneously like a defacement and an embellishment of the object. The book titles also allow me to highlight my interest in words and letterforms. I think of them more as an open ended idea or short poetic phrase. “
The exhibition will be on display through November and December.