Spotlight Artist

Matt Haffner

South
Artist profile photo

Beckon (from the Dusk Series)

Spooky house and bare tree at night, crows flying and perched on branches, orange light in window.

acrylic and graphite on paper

Prowl (from the Dusk Series)

Dark bus parked beside bare tree at night, person on swing, dog walking nearby.

acrylic and graphite on paper

Smoke on the Horizon (from the Dusk Series)

Silhouetted bear and antlered figure walking at night, tower and smoke in background.

acrylic and graphite on paper

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

 Half Light.

Like trying to remember a dream that is fading fast or wondering if a memory is true or invented, this work is fueled by a combination of personal narratives blended with scenes from mythology, the occult, paganism, historical folklore, urban legends, and bedtime stories of witches. These pieces address moments too difficult to describe, where elements come together to create surreal and otherworldly experiences.

These atmospheric works portray an empty and expansive environment populated with moments of uncomfortable isolation and crystalline intensity. They depict a muted and lonely landscape disrupted by dreamlike instants of energized interactions. Use of humble materials and simple processes, elevated through innovation, attention to detail, and meticulous craft, creates an experience that promotes inspection and contemplation while traversing layered narratives and ambiguous storytelling.

This work explores the activity taking place in the peripheries of our sight and the edges of our understanding. Obscured vignettes suggest looking through dirty cabin windows or steamy car windshields at glimpsed scenes that unsettle yet draw the viewer in for closer inspection.

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