Matthew Kolodziej lives and works in Ohio.
Kolodziej earned a BA in economics from the University of Chicago in 1988 and an MFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 1993. He is a professor at the Myers School of Art, University of Akron. Interested in what people leave behind, Kolodziej spent his formative years working on archaeological digs and building theatre stage sets. Although one fragment might not tell a story, a collection of information begins to show patterns and meaning.
Movement, forming perception, and navigation of space and time are consistent themes in Kolodziej’s work. In the digital age, negotiation of both physical reality and digital fabrications are constantly challenged. Kolodziej uses images of architecture and landscape to explore the presence of change and the collision of artificial and material worlds.
Kolodziej uses demolition and construction sites as material to compose artificial collages on the computer. This documentation gives him a sense of the texture, physical structure, color, and light in the landscape. In the studio, these collages of sites are projected onto canvas. The projections are mapped to form a network. The paintings present fragments and residues on the surface as evidence of intersections and structures. This experience forces a sense of dislocation in the viewer rather than recreating a specific place or stability.
Kolodziej has been exhibiting his work since the mid 1980s. His work has been shown in galleries and museums around the country and abroad. Recent solo shows include work at the William Busta Gallery in Cleveland and The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. His work has been in group exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Rockford Art Museum, the Akron Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.