Matt Grimes: On Identity, Social Justice, and Activist Art
Matt is a 22 year old senior art student at Portland State University, after graduating he hopes to continue on to grad school. Image above: "Untitled", acrylic.
Tell me about your art-making practices?
Most of my artwork lately has revolved around identity and identity politics, and a lot of it has been centered around my trans identity in trying to express that in a digestible way. And, a lot of it is for my own benefit in therapeutic practices in figuring out my identity and how it has been shaped by this culture and how I can question that culture to come to a better understanding of myself. That’s a lot of the conceptual backing of my artwork, based on those experiences how culture is affecting that.
What mediums do you work in?
Right now I’m mainly just doing acrylic, charcoal, and pencil, just mixed-media stuff as well. I’m just mainly focusing on painting because I want to refine that process. I feel like I’m a good drawer at this point, but painting I still need to get better at. But, as an artist I don’t want to necessarily restrict myself to certain mediums, so that’s what I’m focusing on now.
Since you’re working on identity and culture as a conceptual background, would you call yourself a contemporary artist?
My goal has certainly become art in social practice, where my art is for more political use and trying to get this type of information out there, and fighting for people who are typically oppressed, and having a more intersectional approach, so not just trans identity. I want to be a part of other oppressed groups as well. That’s my ultimate goal as a contemporary artist.
From left to right- "Untitled", acrylic // "Expectations", mixed media // "Untitled, acrylic
Would you consider yourself an activist artist?
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an activist artist at this point, because I feel like my artwork is more personal while actively trying to convey a message. It’s more conceptual; I’m trying to get to a point where my messages about this particular type of work are kind of soul-searching, so I wouldn’t call myself an activist artist at this point.
How did growing up with a parent who also makes art influence your art-making?
Tremendously so! As a kid I was always creative, drawing a lot, and my mom was going to college while I was in elementary school, so she was always taking lots of classes. She, with both me and my sister, would always have supplies readily available. One time she took us to one of her art classes at Southern Oregon University, and me and my sister painted. There was always that influence, and she also taught in a lot of my elementary school classes, like drawing or facial proportions, which really gave me a foundation. Where my sister went off and did her own thing, I was really influenced by art, I’ve always been more attracted to visual-representations. My mom has been a tremendous inspiration!
Have you had to adjust your perspective on art since moving from Southern Oregon to Portland?
Oh yeah! My experience with learning art in high school was always trying to capture something in the most realistic way possible, rendering it well, not a whole lot of conceptual ideas around that. So coming to Portland, at first it was about rendering-skills, but then it was also focusing on conceptual aspects of art. That really opened up a lot for me, where I really loved this practice and I could put myself into it. Having professors encourage me to do what I wanted, but also giving me structure and direction has been a good experience.
Was PSU what you expected in terms of academic style?
I liked PSU in the first couple of years. The first year was mostly foundational classes, and the second year I got to choose classes based on medium. I’m a little sad about their programs because they don’t even have proper facilities to even do oil painting in. If anything, I wish PSU would give more money to the art program so that more craft-making could happen. We don’t even have ceramics anymore. Other than that I’m excited to graduate, I’m definitely going to go to a different school for a graduate school, just because I feel like it could be a better trajectory for me.
Do you have a capstone project?
Not yet, at PSU we have to take a class in the Spring and I want to take one on working with prison pen-pals, specifically with a women’s prison. I feel like it would be important for social practice and finding that intersectionality, and working around capitalism and the prison-industrial complex, and working with trans people and trans people of color in the prison system. Those are things I’m definitely interested in working with.
Are there any styles of mediums that you see trending in Portland, good or bad?
Well, most of my artist friends they do all types of art, like writing, printmaking, painting, that are mainly around queer identity. I’ve been seeing a lot of appropriative art, which is pretty shitty. Appropriation of Native cultures, lots of White people making dream catchers and using that for art. Because Oregon is such a white state, so Portland is also very white, and a lot of artists aren’t being very careful of what they put in their art. I’m always wary of cultural appropriation.
via Grace Prechtel, a 22 year old artist based in Talent, OR.
