For those of you in Italy, or more specifically, Turin, you could do worse than check out the Mathew Sawyer solo show at the GALLERIA SONIA ROSSO. Mathew of course being, with his Ghosts, one of the newer additions to the sparkling I Wish I Was Unpopular roster of recording artistes. His Penny Falls EP for the label is a gem of understated, introverted and fragile folk-pop. And whilst I know I would say that (being the man behind the curtain at the label in question), it doesnt make it any less true. If you don't own  a copy already I want to know why not.

Anyway, here's what the press release says about Mathew's Art Show:

MATHEW SAWYER
The Return of Death and Hot Pop Corn
24 February – 30 April 2005


The gallery is pleased to present the first solo show of Mathew Sawyer in Italy.
The artist shows a new video, drawings and photographies.

About his work, Matthew Higgs wrote:
“ (…) Almost comically pathetic – often little more than a desultory image accompanied by a brief (and often poorly written) explanatory text – his pieces describe, for the most part, his tragicomic, tipically unrequited attempts to make contact with or have his presence acknowledged by others.
An utitled work from 1999 saw Sawyer purchase from the same fruit stall in South London market a single Granny Smith apple every day for over a month until finally one day the owner of the stall anticipated his request, saying, “One Granny, isn’t it?”. On being recognized and accepted within the “community” of the fruitmonger’s regular clientele, Sawyer had accomplished his mission: He belonged. In It’All Come Out in the Wash, 1999, Sawyer scribbled fragments of rocks lirics by such emotionally introverted acts as the Velvet Underground, Neil Young and the Raincoats onto scraps of paper, which he then surreptitiously placed into the pockets or handbags of strangers he encountered in the street or on public transportation, with the vague hope that these messages might somehow resonate with their unwitting recipients. A more recent work, Someone to Share my life with, 2002 evolved as Sawyer observed over a period of months his next-door neighbor’s nightly ritual of leaving his shoes outside his apartment door. One evening Sawyer kidnapped the shoes, taking them into his own apartment, where he painted a beautiful rendered swallow on each worn sole. He then carefully replaced the shoes in the hallway before anyone noticed they were gone. His neighbor awoke the next morning only to carry on with his daily routine, seemingly oblivious to Sawyer’s tender intervention.
(…) For the last couple of years Sawyer has also been experimenting with songwriting as a kind of quasi-social/sculptural form. With his lo-fi band the Ghosts , Sawyer has taken the reluctant step – for someone so evidently shy – of performing his maudlin songs. Like the Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader, who infected the sometimes sterile terrain of the Conceptual art with unabashed emotion, Mathew Sawyer insn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. As with the songs of the musicians he clearly adores, Sawyer’s works are at once uncomfortably personal and uncannily universal: after all, doesn’ everybody want to be accepted, remembered, loved (or at least have their existence acknowledged)?” (Artforum, January 2003).

Among his last group exhibition: Documentary Creations, Museum of Art Lucern, curated by Susanne Neubauer, 2005; Your heart is no match for my love, Soap Factory, Minneapolis, 2004; The distance beween me and you, Lisson gallery, London, 2004; Someone to Share my life with, the Approach, London, 2004

The gallery is open from tuesday to saturday, 3 pm – 7 pm.



GALLERIA SONIA ROSSO
via Giulia di Barolo 11/h   I – 10124 Torino  tel/fax +39 011 8172478  [email protected]   www.soniarosso.com