26 NOVEMBER 21, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Ridgewood-based painter
receives renowned fellowship
BY ANGELICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
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 fi ve years ago aft er
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
award-winning Jeff rey Gibson, that Kirk fi rst 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, aft er his exhibition at the Fierman
gallery, he gave it another shot.
“I still kept showing and making work, and so my
network had grown signifi cantly since my fi rst 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 diffi cult 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 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.”
Matthew Alan Kirk Courtesy of the Eiteljorg Museum
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 fi nding 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 diff erent 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 routine is made up of work during the
day, tending to his kids’ needs in the aft ernoon, and
aft er putting them to sleep, an hour or so of painting
at night.
Kirk believes his live-work 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 fl owing, 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.”
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