Matt Kleberg

Region: MFA Annual

Paintings create space for meaning within contradiction, telling truths through falsehoods. I am interested in how a painting can hold opposites in tension without negating either one, how a form can be both positive and negative, a space simultaneously vacant and full.

My recent work borrows from architectural and ornamental forms such as altars, theater sets, and stages—all sites that frame specific actions and actors, suggesting a connection to performativity, whether ritual or theatrical. The possibility of an actor is more compelling to me than the depiction of one.