Psychological Landscapes
August 2003
Reprinted by permission of the Athens Banner-Herald with additional material
By Melissa Link
Correspondent
Often calling to mind stills from 1920s-era cinema, Matney's photos capture the figure in various states of contortion and relaxation, creating an illusion of continued motion
In his current exhibit of work at X-Ray Café in downtown Athens, Virginia photographer John Matney II shows a range of figurative and multilayered still lifes offering subtle glimpses into the archetypal states of the human subconscious. Matney, who received an English degree from the University of Georgia in 1988 and then went on to study at the Art Institute of Atlanta, frequently utilizes the nude figure as a mechanism for relating inner emotions crucial to the human condition
''One of the things I struggle with when dealing with the human figure is exploring how to reconcile the dichotomy between the body and the individual in a way that doesn't seem detached,'' explains Matney of his approach to his figurative work.
John Lee Matney, Jeremy Ayers, 1994, Archival pigment print
Still Life Detail , 1994
John Lee Matney, Ane, 1994
Yesterday, 2001
''I try to integrate the immediacy of video into still photos to achieve a more diverse sense of the nude and the moment,''
She Venom, 1998
Armando. 1996
Often calling to mind stills from 1920s-era cinema, Matney's photos capture the figure in various states of contortion and relaxation, creating an illusion of continued motion. Matney, whose work has received frequent awards in juried exhibits in several prestigious Washington, D.C.,-area art venues, also works in video, a proclivity that comes across in his still photographic work.
Shelia, 1998
John Lee Matney, Sheila , 1998-printed 2021, Video still, archival pigment print, 24 × 35 7/10 in, Editions 1-5 of 5 + 2AP.
Shelia, 1998
''I try to integrate the immediacy of video into still photos to achieve a more diverse sense of the nude and the moment,'' he explains.
Occasionally using digital layering techniques, Matney adheres to traditional photographic printing processes to produce images imbued with a sense of timelessness and classicism. ''The layering creates a psychological landscape,'' he explains, mentioning his interest in the archetypal subject matter of Jungian psychology.
Such Jungian leanings are apparent in works such as ''Container and the Contained,'' a close-up facial image of an exotic dark-skinned woman leaning alongside a blank-staring human skull. The coupling of female beauty with a classic memento mori symbol offers a subtle statement on the ancient intertwining of the powers of sex and death.
The Container and the Contained, 2002, Archival inkjet, 14 × 14 in, Editions 1-15 of 15 + 2AP. VIEW ON ARTSY
A similar sentiment comes across in several nude figurative works depicting a dark-lidded young woman in various states of struggle with an over-long strand of pearls. Calling to mind an archetypal Venus figure, the contorted movements and allusions to bondage also infer a subconscious battle involving sex, servility, anguish and ecstasy.
John Lee Matney, Pearls, 1999, Archival pigment print, 14x11 in.
Avernus, 1998
Shelia, 1998