Matthew Brannon

Artist Matthew Brannon is best known for his letterpress and screenprints that explore the metropolitan quotidian through compositions of simple graphic images accompanied by fragments of text. Taking his aesthetic inspiration from vintage movie posters and advertisements, Brannon's prints often feature banal items that hint at upper-middle-class notions of elegance—martini glasses, theater tickets, cigarettes, party invitations—rendered neatly and elegantly in retro 1950s colors. The appended text then adds a subversive twist to the subject, usually humorous, sometimes mocking, and other times expressing anxiety or boredom with the attitudes and conventions of modern society.

Over the past few years, Brannon has expanded his oeuvre to include painting, sculpture, and installation, still focused on the tensions of contemporary culture. He has starred in numerous solo exhibitions at prestigious galleries and museums—including Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York, Serpentine Gallery in London, Casey Kaplan in New York and the Whitney at Altria in New York—as well as many group shows internationally.

Click here to watch a video studio visit with Matthew Brannon.