Text and Photos by Katarina Hybenova
Biking down to the studio of Bushwick painter Matthew Miller, I felt like I have more questions that information. Mathew lives right above The Narrows, which used to be Pocket Utopia, he adds immediately as if he wanted to underline the sanctity of what used to be a legendary art pop-up gallery lead by Austin Thomas.
Matthew Miller is a likable peaceful guy, polite, and friendly who never speaks too much nor too little. He likes to go out to see the art shows in Bushwick. With his conservative look, he is nothing like a Bushwick hipster, actually quite to the contrary; he likes to wear dress pans with dress shoes, and a simple white t-shirt.
As I lock my bike and follow him up the stairs to his studio, I can’t wait to see how and if his newest works changed since the huge wave of media interest in Matthew’s person. Virtually every prime art publication in the country rushed to review his recent solo show at Famous Accountants, a DIY gallery developed in the basement of a Ridgewood house. Matthew opens the door of the a small neat studio, which serves also as a bedroom; the air-conditioner is silently buzzing, cooling off the space to the perfect temperature, the floor is wiped clean, the books are straighten in a bookshelf. Matthew probably noticing my surprise excuses the perfectly clean room by saying that he can’t paint in a mess. After reading about Matthew’s work in New York Times I was expecting, maybe a little bit more of fanciness, but I received a portion of Bushwick reality where artists are leading double lives, the first life, the necessary one at a day job from 9 to 5; then the second one in the evenings and early mornings, creating, planning, showing in galleries, being reviewed by New Criterion.
