Ridgewood-based painter receives
renowned Native American fellowship
BY ANGELICA ACEVEDO
Matthew Alan Kirk’s colorful
abstract paintings will
be on display at a new exhibition
in the Eiteljorg Museum,
an Indianapolis museum that
“seeks to inspire an appreciation
and understanding of
the art, history and cultures
of the American West and the
Indigenous peoples of North
America.”
“Just to be recognized, to
be part of this roster of other
artists that have come before
me … it’s so great,” Kirk,
who is of Navajo descent, told
QNS. “I’m looking forward to
it being a springboard.”
Other than having his
work, along with the work of
four other artists, showcased
at the “Blurring the Line: The
Eiteljorg Contemporary Art
Fellowship 2019” exhibition
from Nov. 16 to Feb. 2, Kirk
also received a generous fellowship
from the museum.
The father of two boys,
an 11-year-old and a 5-yearold,
will be awarded $25,000
in unrestricted funds. The
museum will also purchase
$115,000 worth of his and fellow
artists’ work for its permanent
collection.
Kirk settled in Ridgewood
five years ago after moving
to New York City almost 14
years prior to pursue his lifelong
dream of becoming an
artist.
The experience, so far,
has been a validating one for
him.
“It’s just been a good, slow,
steady grind,” Kirk said.
“But it’s paying off now.”
Kirk currently works as
an art handler, helping move
and deliver art pieces around
the city. Although he didn’t
go to art school — “being
an art handler was my art
school,” he joked — he found
that the work helped him
build his network.
It was thanks to a fellow
Indigenous artist, the awardwinning
Jeffrey Gibson, that
Kirk first heard about the
fellowship back in 2012 and
connected with the Smithsonian.
Kirk applied then, but
he knew the timing wasn’t
right.
But last year, after his exhibition
at the Fierman gallery,
he gave it another shot.
“I still kept showing and
making work, and so my
network had grown significantly
since my first show,
so I had a lot of people to
get a hold of,” Kirk said. “It
ended up being where I got
to meet a lot of Native curators
and people within the
Native art world. And one of
them reminded me to apply
for this fellowship again, so
I did.”
Several months later, he
got the call from the Eiteljorg
Museum.
Kirk believes this moment
feels especially important
since he not only struggled
with his identity growing up,
but also found it difficult to
connect with fellow Indigenous
people.
The 41-year-old was born
in Arizona, but grew up in
Wisconsin. His father is Navajo
and his mother is mixed-
European.
Since he didn’t grow up
near his father’s side of the
Matthew Alan Kirk
Courtesy of the Eiteljorg Museum
family, it wasn’t easy for him
to connect with that part of
his identity.
“It’s something that I
struggled with for a while,
just because when you’re
the only Native kid in your
school, it can be easy to start
to think, ‘Oh, I’m the only Native
kid in the world, I don’t
know anybody else,’” Kirk
said. “And everybody else always
treated it like a special
thing or a rarity.”
But gradually, Kirk has
found ways to connect with
his Indigenous culture —
mostly through art.
“To be able to meet other
people that have had similar
stories … and they’re finding
their way back to that part
of their culture, it’s been a
real eye-opener,” he said. “It
feels like it all kind of came
together and happened at the
right time.”
He’s also comforted by
how welcoming his fellow Indigenous
artists have been.
“I’ve been really fortunate
to have been given this opportunity
to meet these other
painters,” Kirk said. “It’s a
whole different art scene,
and everybody’s been so supportive,
and it feels like a
real tight community.”
Thanks to the funds the
fellowship has awarded Kirk,
he’ll have more time to focus
on his paintings. His current
Courtesy of Jessica Strickland
routine is made up of work
during the day, tending to his
kids’ needs in the afternoon,
and after putting them to
sleep, an hour or so of painting
at night.
Kirk believes his livework
home in Ridgewood
helps him get everything
done.
“I get to work out of my
basement, and that’s the only
way I could really get any of
this done, it’s because it allows
me to be so close to my
children,” he said. “If I come
home and do everything, and
turn around and go back to
a studio, that would be exhausting.”
He explained that his abstract
paintings, which are
colorful and expressive, are
more of a “feeling thing”
than a “thinking thing.”
“It’s a very free flowing,
free form expression of my
creativity,” Kirk said. “A lot
of it is dealing with my day,
which is like a decompression.
It’s therapeutic.”
TIMESLEDGER, N QNS.COM OV. 15-21, 2019 3
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