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Matthew Day Jackson

@matthewdayjackson

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Staring into this collective "life review"

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I went to MoMA today with my mom. It gave me great pleasure to describe all of the print techniques at play in the work of Käthe Kollwitz. I studied printmaking in college and worked professionally as a printer for years. My parents paid my tuition to the University of Washington and it makes me really proud that I followed this path. The money they spent for me to get my BFA (900 dollars a trimester) made it possible to describe the techniques in great detail. I could bore many nearly to death….try me! The show at MoMA is so great because they made magnifying glasses available so one can see the details in her magnificent prints. Kollwitz, Goya, Redon are parts of the axis mundi of my interest in art. Each of them are imbedded in everything I love and try to accomplish in my own work.

This show is devastating and it was very difficult to not cry in several key moments of the show. I think seeing it with my mom made it all the more powerful. There is tremendous power in these works and they are timeless. Seeing this and @shanamoulton really filled my sails with hope and inspiration. by @matthewdayjackson

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3 years ago

Matthew Day Jackson
Study Collection (MDJ's Grey Matter from MRI Scan)
Stainless Steel, Acrylic paint, Horse bones, plastic,
31.5" x 19.5"x 12"
Matthew Day Jackson’s new Portrait Series, presented at Frieze, carries the ideas of his Study Collections into more intimate sculptural vignettes. The earlier works arrange objects on shelves according to the proportions of the human body, bringing material, memory, technology, and history together as self-portraits. Here, objects from Jackson’s collection mingle with sculptural sketches, allowing the found, handmade, and industrial to form relationships. These encounters reflect his belief that we are built from innumerable, disparate experiences—a quiltwork of self in a “constant state of becoming.”

Study Collection (MDJ’s Grey Matter from MRI Scan) begins with Jackson’s first MRI in 2006, which led to a diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Arriving early in his career, the diagnosis gave urgency to making all he could in the time available. Forms derived from his grey matter bring together the rainbow spectrum and stars against black, reflecting his description of imagination as a darkness from which forms and images emerge. Below, horse femurs bear scrimshaw, a practice associated with mariners and sea voyages, depicting sketches from René Daumal’s Mount Analogue and routes toward an imaginary mountain taller than Everest. The horse evokes an early transformation in the speed of human travel. Beside the femurs is a cast of a mastodon molar associated with Lewis and Clark, Thomas Jefferson, and the exchange of specimens with France’s scientific community—an object that helped reshape European understandings of North American animal life. Behind them, a view through the window of the Lunar Excursion Module is etched into drywall, bringing the distant lunar landscape into a familiar building material. For Jackson, this meeting of near and far also recalls a lunar mission driven by Cold War rivalry, set against the enduring mystery of a moon that has been watched for as long as there have been eyes on earth. by @matthewdayjackson

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Matthew Day Jackson
Study Collection (after Hiroshige)
Stainless steel, Trinitite encased in lucite, paint, epoxy, tree branch
31.5" x 12" x 12"
2026

Matthew Day Jackson’s new Portrait Series, presented at Frieze, develops the ideas of his Study Collections through more intimate sculptural vignettes. The earlier works gather objects on shelves organized around the proportions of the human body, forming self-portraits through relationships among material, memory, technology, and history. In these new works, objects from Jackson’s collection mingle with sculptural sketches, allowing the found, handmade, and industrial to coexist. Together, they express his belief that we are built from innumerable, disparate experiences—a quiltwork of self in a “constant state of becoming.”

Study Collection (after Hiroshige) draws on Utagawa Hiroshige’s Moon Pine, Ueno, No. 89 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, in which a view of the city appears through the peculiar curve of a pine branch. Jackson found his branch while hiking near a trailhead in Grand Teton National Park. He sees its form as a human–plant hybrid, shaped through human intervention. Here, the branch frames the moon, our nearest celestial neighbor and the furthest humans have traveled, reaching speeds unmatched in human travel. Behind these objects, an image brings moon and tree together as we might experience them in nature. The upper shelf holds a fragment of Trinitite encased in Lucite, formed when the intense heat of the first atomic test fused desert sand into glass. Upon close inspection, an anthropomorphic quality emerges in this small but significant piece of human-made matter. The detonation of “The Gadget” inaugurated the nuclear age; subsequent nuclear testing dispersed radioactive isotopes around the globe, leaving a measurable human signature in the environment. For Jackson, this trace marks the beginning of the Anthropocene, connecting the experiences that shape an individual with the actions through which humanity reshapes the earth. by @matthewdayjackson

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Four years ago, I made this sculpture in a workshop at the Walla Walla Foundry out of cardboard, wax, tree branches, paper and anything else I could get my hands on that could be "Burned out". The sculpture is based on Rodin's "Gates of Hell" and is a direct cast, meaning that no molds were made and is meant to be a unique work. I had made preliminary drawings of the work a decade earlier but needless to say, it needed a space and someone with vision to allow it to become real. The work lives at Rowdy Meadow which is the brainchild of Scott Mueller and will become a part of the Cleveland Museum of Art in the future. Yes, the fire is real.

Matthew Day Jackson
Gate
27feet x 14feet x 6feet
Bronze, Stainless Steel, artist made Ceramic Tile.
2022 by @matthewdayjackson

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24 days ago

📻 Join me this Tuesday from 1–3 pm (UK time) on Aaja Music for a special edition featuring artist Matthew Day Jackson.

We talk about his artistic journey, how he first came to art, the ideas behind his practice and his thoughts on what art can be and do.

After our conversation, Matthew has also curated a beautiful selection of music, grazie Matthew!!!

Tune in, Everyone Is Invited ☀️

🎧 Tuesday | 1–3 pm (UK)
📻 aajamusic.com

#aajamusic #matthewdayjackson #art #nyc #everyoneisinvited taken in New York, New York by @matthewdayjackson

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3 months ago

What remains

MATTHEW DAY JACKSON, Wonky Lounge Chair, 2025
CY TWOMBLY, Untitled, 1960-1961
JESÚS RAFAEL SOTO, Light Trap (Piège de lumière), 1965

Jesús Rafael Soto “Light Trap” destabilizes vision itself, trapping light in a perpetual state of uncertainty. Nearby, a Roman-period drawing by Cy Twombly unfolds as a field of memory and erosion: numbers, marks, and fleeting forms gathering and dispersing across the page, orbiting a single red rupture that feels at once like a wound, a flower, and a lingering trace of desire.

Grounding the conversation below, Matthew Day Jackson’s Wonky Lounge Chair transforms discarded materials into an object of refuge. Built from remnants and lined in black sheepskin, it proposes renewal not through perfection, but through survival.

Together, the works inhabit the territory of aftermath: perception unsettled, language fragmented, matter reclaimed. A meditation on degradation, resilience, and the strange beauty that emerges when old structures begin to break apart.
#MatthewDayJackson #CyTwombly #jesusrafaelsoto #contemporaryart #modernart taken in Upper East Side, Manhattan by @matthewdayjackson

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In 2018, I found two Japanese sword blades at a flea market in the UK. They sat in my studio for years while always intending to repurpose them. I finished these a couple months ago using refuse material from other current projects. The castings were cast from patterns that I carved making the hilt guard, pommel, locket and lugs.

I am frequently making things that do not fit into "art" because making things is a joyful act that I sometimes like without thinking about art. Sometimes things turn out really cool and I get to show them here. Anyway, both swords are for my kids when I pass away. Note the locks... super dangerous. So, although ridiculous, I am still a good dad. by @matthewdayjackson

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4 months ago

🌱 by @matthewdayjackson

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4 months ago

We are pleased to announce that Matthew Day Jackson’s ‘Earth from Space’ has been acquired by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (NL).

Matthew Day Jackson employs intensive research and production processes to create objects that coincide with a reassembling of history. He views the combination of materials and references to disparate time periods as a metaphor for interconnectivity. His use of materials reflects the idea that our evolution is not only found within the slow adaptation of our bodies, but it is “also present in the materials we use to express our humanity over time, the evolving process of the creation of society, and the performance of culture.”

Image:
Matthew Day Jackson
‘Earth from Space’
2013
Enamel silkscreened on Corten steel panel, rusted
213.4 x 160 x 6.35 cm | 84 1/8 x 63 x 2 1/2 in
Collection of @stedelijkmuseum courtesy @grimmgallery

#matthewdayjackson #stedelijkmuseumamsterdam #grimm #grimmgallery taken in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam by @matthewdayjackson

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6 months ago

I was asked to collaborate with Samsung to feature work on Frame TV. I am happy to see my work in different mediums and happy to be a part of this initiative. Here are some of the images! #samsungartstore #samsungarttv #samsung by @matthewdayjackson

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6 months ago

In the Blue Period.

Wonky Dining Table by Matthew Day Jackson.

Bold in color and form, rooted in nature and improvised by the artist’s hand- proof that the ruler is overrated. Each table, inherently unique, is assembled from discarded tree branches, built without measurements and guided instead by instinct and direct problem-solving.

An exercise in sustainability, engineering efficiency, and the Constructivist ideal of “art for the proletariat.”

Commissionable in color and form.

#BRUTEFORCE #thirty8east #matthewdayjackson #contemporarydesign collectibledesig by @matthewdayjackson

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7 months ago

February 1st, we delighted in the Full Moon Ski - Aspen Edition - celebrating @matthewdayjackson ‘s collaboration with @aztechmountain on a futuristic winter apparel collection! Be sure to check it out online or at @performanceski in Aspen.

The Full Moon Ski is a perennial event celebrating the mountains, art and being alive. Born many years ago when @camilleobering and @benmussermusic took Matt and @laura_seymour_studio out for a full moon ski to experience the magic of communing under the mountains in the glow of the full moon and snow-covered terrain. Since then Camille, Matt, Andy Kincaid, Ben, and Laura have hosted the ski, inviting the artistic community together for this celestial experience.

This year’s Aspen edition began at Performance Ski which is showcasing the wild and wonderful collection. We spread the “fullmoonski” magic to a new community in a very special setting, skiing at Starwood (in Aspen) where #johndenver lived, drew inspiration and wrote many songs. A delicious dinner was hosted by @heifararutgers , David Roth and @alexawesner at #steineriksen ‘s original house. Ben entertained the group with John Denver songs and all were invited to sing along - Matt Jackson taking the lead. Our hearts were filled with love, connection, and community! 🌕⛷️💙

@holidayforevergallery
@wallawallafoundry

#fullmoon #crosscountryskiing #contemporaryart taken in Aspen, Colorado by @matthewdayjackson

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8 months ago