Tag: Matt Siren
Woodward Gallery is the selected feature on the “Artsy Gallery Banner” this week! Woodward Gallery’s current exhibition, “Matt Siren: Thriller” can be found here. A virtual viewing room for this exhibition can be found here.

MATT SIREN
Matt Siren: Thriller
September – October 2022
Woodward Gallery
For well over a decade, Matt Siren brought piercing, high-contrast artwork from the streets of New York City to the walls of Woodward Gallery. This Fall, the Artist’s first solo exhibition at Woodward Gallery, Matt Siren: Thriller, explores his creative evolution. Matt Siren’s collection of characters is widely-recognized and respected from the American East and West Coasts to European cities, such as London and Paris. By fusing thick-lined graphic content, sharp comic book illustrations, and playful storytelling into his art, Matt Siren’s work thrills. This exhibition highlights the Artist’s most iconic characters, who stir up imagination, and seduce. Vintage screenprints on metal signs and current hand-painted wood-block assemblages are featured together in a two-part exhibition at Woodward Gallery. Prepare for a wild ride of past, present, and future storytelling —unique to Matt Siren— transcending street and fine art.
Since 2008, the beautiful face of Matt Siren’s Ghost Girl has appeared on urban walls, became a set of vinyl toy collectibles, decorated reality television beach homes, was discussed on CBS News, was worn by the fashion world, and was even transformed into a 7.6-acre corn maze. This hard-edge, female icon with dark hair pulled to the side by a flower, harkens back to Matt Siren’s youthful love of gaming— particularly, his nostalgia for the arcade game, Ms. Pac-Man. Ghost Girl stares directly at her voyeur’s eyes, hypnotizing the viewer to follow her. The powerful silhouette of Ghost Girl is set in a variety of colors as a representation of diversity and feminism; she could represent anyone, no matter their background, size, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity. Her universal image has become Matt Siren’s signature symbol. All women are intended to be represented in Ghost Girl’s robust and striking spirit.
Matt Siren’s Death Face is one face of a character called a Quintesson from the 1980s cartoon, The Transformers. The fictional robo-alien race of Quintesson has 5 faces. As fans of The Transformers franchise know, the specific season where the Quintesson characters appear is filled with dark psychological undertones. Their graphic design style and deep meaning inspire Siren’s own creative twist on these characters.
Siren’s vintage Pin-ups represent the Artist’s respect for the female form and its vigor. Through his deep appreciation for women, their physical strength, and ability to be resilient in the face of pain and conflict, Matt Siren’s Pin-ups are not intended to objectify women through the problematic lens of the male gaze, but rather, to alter it to focus on feminist power through sexuality. The erotic Burlesque in the Living Room series teases the viewer to engage with Matt Siren’s event advertisements discussing performer Gigi La Femme. Specifically, Siren inverts the commercial dialogue so the female characters may utilize their femininity to regain control of the male gaze that fails to define them.
Metaphorically and symbolically, Matt Siren’s Skull represents a wartime spirit of going into battle with a vengeance. The Skull represents a sense of condemnation and a warning of impending death. However, death, as a metaphor, can also signify the end of an era— or a new beginning. Matt Siren’s Skulls are presented, not as figures of existential doom, but rather, as comical or ironic manifestations of serious caution.
Pulling from our archives, Ghost Girl and Burlesque in the Living Room limited edition prints will be made available at Woodward Gallery, on a first-come-first-serve basis, for the duration of the exhibition. Woodward Gallery invites all to the exciting realm of Matt Siren: Thriller. A full-color, digital catalog is available on our website. This exhibition is presented at Woodward Gallery in our street-level windows 24/7, by private appointment, and as an online exhibition and Viewing Room on Artsy.net. Come one, come all!
- Read the WIDEWALLS “Matt Siren: Thriller” Exhibition Review here as a PDF
Group Exhibition
September 10 – October 28, 2016
Woodward Gallery
The Fall Art Season opens as if nature has been saving up all year for its grand finale. For the first time at Woodward Gallery, a group exhibition is presented in salon format featuring 61 artists and 129 works of art!
An environment of art styles and mediums engulf the gallery walls offering quality, variety and substance for the collector who yearns to feel inspired. The array of Artists makes for a breathtaking visual spectacle.
This NYC Salon is accessible to beginning collectors and art connoisseurs alike.
Artists: Michael Alan, Royce Bannon, Rick Begneaud, David Bishop, Jonathan Borofsky, Susan Breen, Brock, Thomas Buildmore, El Celso, Patrick Christie, Deborah Claxton, Crash, Allan D’Arcangelo, Darkcloud, Jim Dine, Annette Davidek, Marisol Escobar, Natalie Edgar, Tommy Flynn, BK FOXX, Sybil Gibson, Richard Hambleton, Keith Haring, Sarah Hauser, Hiro Ichikawa, Robert Indiana, Infinity, Jean Kigel, Franz Kline, Walt Kuhn, LAII, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichenstein, Bill Martin, Knox Martin, Mark Mastroianni, Moody, Margaret Morrison, Malcolm Morley, Kenji Nakayama, Terence Netter, Roy Newell, Hank O’Neal, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Peabody, Jaggu Prasad, Mel Ramos, Ad Reinhardt, JMR/ JM Rizzi, Brad Robson, Maura Robinson, James Rosenquist, Jessica Hurley Scott, Matt Siren, stikman, Swoon, Francesco Tumbiolo, Jo Ellen Van Ouwerkerk, Nina Venus, Andy Warhol, and Charles Yoder.
September 12 – October 24, 2015
Woodward Gallery
This survey will recall past trends, exhibition themes and current inspirations by the Artists Woodward Gallery has featured throughout its decades long history. These Artists have all been exhibited at some time since 1994 reflecting the variety of the Gallery’s collection:
Peter Apelgren,
Jean Michel Basquiat,
Susan Breen,
Michael Brodeur,
El Celso,
Deborah Claxton,
Gregory Corn,
Alan D’Arcangelo,
Darkcloud,
Natalie Edgar,
Marisol Escobar,
Fab 5 Freddy,
Paul Gauguin,
Red Grooms,
Tom Hall,
Richard Hambleton,
Keith Haring,
Sarah Hauser,
Hiro Ichikawa,
Robert Indiana,
Jasper Johns,
Donald Judd,
Janice Johnson,
Franz Kline,
LAII,
Roy Lichtenstein,
Mark Mastroianni,
Knox Martin,
Moody,
Margaret Morrison,
Robbin Murphy,
Kenji Nakayama,
Neckface,
Terence Netter,
Don Nice,
Francis Picabia,
Jaggu Prasad,
Ad Reinhardt,
Drew Roth,
David Salle,
Matt Siren,
Frank Stella,
stikman,
Ellinor Ströström,
Philip Taaffe,
Francesco Tumbiolo,
Andy Warhol,
Charles Yoder,
“Charting Ground Zero”
Matt Siren & Darkcloud
May 10 – June 28, 2008
Woodward Gallery
Woodward Gallery is proud to open the Spring season by introducing Artists Matt Siren and Darkcloud. “Street Language” will transpose two respected street artists with a select group of their peers to a gallery setting for the first time.
Representing a true renaissance in urban art, these emerging artists surface from a subculture ruled by self-directed codes and complicated by its delight in youthful mayhem. They tag with their icons consuming the urban landscape with colorful enthusiasm; reveling in an ability to seep into and subvert the hyperkinetic visual surroundings most passersby take for granted.
Utilizing their individualized lexicons, Matt Siren and Darkcloud bring their recognizable icons indoors with edition prints on paper and original paintings on metal signs or wood. Born of media saturation, these icons speak of cartoons, video games, toys, and a generation aware of the potency of a powerfully branded image – and its repetition.
Matt Siren’s bold Ghost Girl image is characterized by black hair with bangs and a sweet round face. Her look is unassuming and Lolita-like. She is designed to pull the viewer in, like the bold image emblazoned on a magazine cover. He manipulates the environment around the girl to challenge her in bright new settings.
Darkcloud’s rainy-cloud symbol elicits a feeling vaguely ominous. Thickly painted, oozing and unnatural, his clouds hover over doorways, on advertisements, and challenge protocol on street signs that once read: yield, stop, and obey.
Additional artists have also been invited to participate in another portion of the “Street Language” exhibition through a collaborative process micro-curated by Matt Siren. These artists work together on street signs to decipher this vibrant language which surrounds us. The group work maintains their allusion to the street, painted directly onto metal signs and ready-made as if to return to their intended environment.
Connected through the rapid waves of text messaging, blogs, and websites these urban artists are now able to connect internationally with their peers creating a shifting social network. Their organized approach to a self-guided movement, so prominent in user-generated wiki-culture, is mirrored in each artist’s unique attempt to edit the urban landscape. Commenting on today, their optic, codified language is finally united to speak on the exhibition walls of Woodward.
Matt Siren and Darkcloud
May 10 – June 28, 2008
Woodward Gallery
Woodward Gallery is proud to open the Spring season by introducing Artists Matt Siren and Darkcloud. “Street Language” will transpose two respected street artists with a select group of their peers to a gallery setting for the first time.
Representing a true renaissance in urban art, these emerging artists surface from a subculture ruled by self-directed codes and complicated by its delight in youthful mayhem. They tag with their icons consuming the urban landscape with colorful enthusiasm; reveling in an ability to seep into and subvert the hyperkinetic visual surroundings most passersby take for granted.
Utilizing their individualized lexicons, Matt Siren and Darkcloud bring their recognizable icons indoors with edition prints on paper and original paintings on metal signs or wood. Born of media saturation, these icons speak of cartoons, video games, toys, and a generation aware of the potency of a powerfully branded image – and its repetition.
Matt Siren’s bold Ghost Girl image is characterized by black hair with bangs and a sweet round face. Her look is unassuming and Lolita-like. She is designed to pull the viewer in, like the bold image emblazoned on a magazine cover. He manipulates the environment around the girl to challenge her in bright new settings.
Darkcloud’s rainy-cloud symbol elicits a feeling vaguely ominous. Thickly painted, oozing and unnatural, his clouds hover over doorways, on advertisements, and challenge protocol on street signs that once read: yield, stop, and obey.
Additional artists have also been invited to participate in another portion of the “Street Language” exhibition through a collaborative process micro-curated by Matt Siren. These artists work together on street signs to decipher this vibrant language which surrounds us. The group work maintains their allusion to the street, painted directly onto metal signs and ready-made as if to return to their intended environment.
Connected through the rapid waves of text messaging, blogs, and websites these urban artists are now able to connect internationally with their peers creating a shifting social network. Their organized approach to a self-guided movement, so prominent in user-generated wiki-culture, is mirrored in each artist’s unique attempt to edit the urban landscape. Commenting on today, their optic, codified language is finally united to speak on the exhibition walls of Woodward.
All work:
Mixed media on metal
24 x 18 inches; 61 x 45.7 cm
Signed on verso by collaborative artists
Matt Siren, El Celso & JMR
2008
Woodward Gallery Project Space
