Curated by MatCh-Art
(Matthew Fisher + Christina Vassallo)

MatCh-Art was born during the winter of 2003 in a quaint apartment in Ridgewood, Queens . Artist Matthew Fisher decided to host a series of weekend-long exhibitions in his abode and beseeched the help of art writer Christina Vassallo. The pair proved to have a seemingly endless supply of irreverent exhibition concepts. Since their first show, Wagon's East , the curating duo has created several online exhibitions for their website and coordinated group shows for non-profit organizations, galleries, and art fairs.

MatCh-Art espouses curating as an art form. Inspired by the thriving creativity of artist collectives, MatCh-Art is a singular vision shared by two curators. The show concepts are the driving force behind the selection of the art and the mission is to create cohesive group exhibitions that spark a dialogue between the work of emerging and established artists. MatCh-Art is a migratory curating machine operating in venues across the country.

is homage to all that is round, curvy, and looped. In art and in life, the circle's perfection is a sought after goal , but actually an unattainable ideal. Used as a formal and conceptual device, the circle embodies infinity, which can mean eternal existence or endless ennui. MatCh-Art selected a group of artists working in a diverse range of media to explore these issues in contemporary art. Many of the artists included in the exhibition already incorporate the circular format into their oeuvre, while others were challenged to work with the shape specifically for this exhibition and to document their experiences .

The circle commands respect—as a staple of art history it's got a reputation to maintain. During the Italian Renaissance the circle was considered to be a divinely inspired shape and throughout the fourteenth century the tondo (Italian for “round”) was reserved for religious icons or allegorical scenes. In Neo-Platonic thought, the circle epitomized the perfectibility of man. By the 1950s the search for purity of form in Modernism, often times embodied by the circle, became dogmatic to its practitioners. The history of portraiture owes a large debt to the formal characteristics of the roundel; numerous government buildings are filled with oval canvases celebrating VIPs.

Despite this impressive lineage and evocative nature, many works utilizing the circle—either as a dominant element or as the format, have assumed a kitschy appeal. Today they are often relegated to the wire racks of thrift stores or are doomed to adorn the wood paneling in grandma's basement. Sensing that “serious” art might not be restricted to right angles and straight lines, MatCh-Art decided to investigate whether any artists were still making engaging, thought-provoking work with shapely objects or perimeters.

A powerful and self-contained form, the circle forces content to defer to shape. John Phillips' Friends of Bob are abstract gestures of quizzical faces defined by the roundness of their support. The artistic elements of B. Wurtz's pie tins are outlined by the confines of the baking accessories. Louis Cameron's Crest conjures the effects of corporate branding through the appropriation of circular color swatches on the toothpaste's packaging. Rob Grunder also acknowledges the ubiquity of advertising with his references to the round General Electric and Hoover logos. In these examples, the meanings of the artworks are inextricably linked to their shape.

Roundness is an automatic reference to the vital and organic. Tom Moody's animated images and Jasper Johns' Target with Four Faces seem to expand outward endlessly, as if growing beyond their spatial limits. Nami Yamamoto's Primordial Soup installation refers to the bubbling, percolating sludge of the earliest biological development. The arc of folded clothing in Derick Melander's Grasp symbolizes the dynamism of social networks by circumscribing viewers' inter-personal relationships.

The circle also signifies an exchange of power that is related to the act of seeing. The subjects of Rob Matthews' and Orly Cogan's portraits demand our attention through confrontational and revealing poses. Mark Shetabi's Airport Parking Garage turns the viewer into a voyeur with a peephole. John Torreano's Wall Balls installation reminds us that being watched is also part of this observational exchange, while Lisa Beck's Untitled ( Slacker) mirrors the reflexivity of the gaze.

The circle continues to roll through the landscape of contemporary art. Today's artists are internalizing the art historical and cultural references associated with the circle and harnessing the creative forces inherent in the shape. This exhibition is a collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations that serve as an ode to the .

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