The internationally acclaimed artist working through peace, love and understanding presents his works for display at the Judy A. Saslow Gallery

Before he became a painter and a sculptor, Chicagoan Matt Lamb had a long, successful business career overseeing a chain of funeral homes. It was only after he survived a life threatening illness at age fifty that he decided to devote his life to creating art

Visually, Lamb’s paintings are generally a play of texture and color. Most of his works have figurative elements with a cast of characters who seem to recur in different configurations in many of the paintings. “My work is like an archaeological dig into the mind and psyche...” says Lamb, “I put a lot of religion in my paintings which helps me work through my philosophies.”

Not only is Lamb a completely self-taught artist, he created a completely new painting technique. He calls his paintings generational: multiple paintings layered onto the same canvas. He primes his surfaces with a mixture of cement, gesso and oil-based mediums, which takes months to dry. He then paints layer after layer of images over this coarse, textured foundation, often using sandpaper and a blowtorch to blister and morph the image further.

"I just want to go around the world, spreading a message of peace and tolerance"