About
Matthew Ronay’s (b. 1976) sculptures are rooted in automatic drawings, allowing the subconscious mind to guide the hand without preconceived notions. By relinquishing control, the artist taps into deeper layers of consciousness, unveiling hidden aspects of the psyche. The works are generally abstract and non-representational, but they resonate strongly with nature’s vocabulary: tubes, bumps, warts, eggs, and orifices. The sculptures also embrace nature’s themes of reproduction and degradation and depend on the space between their parts, implying the intimacy of touch, which viewers often perceive in a haptic way. Working primarily in basswood, Ronay creates all of his works unassisted, investing the sculptures with rhythmic textures and shapes that seem to have “grown” autonomously.