Back and Forth: Collaborative Paintings is centered around a longstanding visual conversation between painters Mathew Zefeldt and Kyle Austin Dunn. In 2010, Zefeldt and Dunn noticed and appreciated each other’s shared interests in surfaces, objects, and processes, and they began exploring their point of intersection. As Zefeldt and Dunn’s solo practices have progressed their collaborations has developed. Hap Gallery is pleased to present the first public presentation of Zefeldt and Dunn’s joint paintings, with an accompaniment of their recent individual work.

Zefeldt works with recognizable artistic tropes such as classical sculptures, glitch aesthetics, and globs of paint. His exaggerated usage of repetitive objects naturally allude to images normally reserved for creation in Photoshop, but the fact that each represented object is painted-with all of it’s painterly characteristics-shift focus to the differences rather than sameness. The paintings reflect back upon themselves as Zefeldt plays with perceived depth juxtaposed with the flatness of the picture plane.

Dunn uses sharp edges and gradation to create imaginary objects that suggest the materials of our fabricated environment – such as plastic dinnerware, surgical instruments, candy, and toys – without depicting them directly. He primarily focuses on surfaces and isolated geometric constructs within imagined spaces. Dunn, along with Zefeldt, set up certain meticulous constraints within which they define their visual languages and expand what they say with those languages-often leading to humorous, playful, and even uneasy associations.

Mathew Zefeldt holds an MFA from University of California, Davis and a BA in Art from University of California, Santa Cruz. Has had solo exhibitions at Michael Rosenthal Gallery in San Francisco, Swarm Gallery in Oakland, CA, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and, currently, at Minneapolis Institute of Art. He has also exhibited at Lisa Cooley Gallery in New York City, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and MOHS Exhibit in Copenhagen, Denmark, among others. Zefeldt has also been awarded prestigious residencies and awards, including the Vermont Studio Center. He has been featured in Beautiful Decay, Art Fuse, New American Paintings, and Daily Serving. Zefeldt is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota and living and working in Minneapolis.

Kyle Austin Dunn also received his MFA from University of California, Davis, and his BFA from the University of Florida. He has exhibited at Minan Gallery in Los Angeles, the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, Circuit 12 Contemporary Gallery in Dallas, the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala, FL and the Museum of Florida Art in Deland, FL. He has been featured in Arcademi Daily, Daily Serving, CASA Magazine, SF Art Enthusiast, and The Gainesville Sun. Dunn currently lives and works in San Francisco.