The Hermit's Revenge Fantasy

Matt Borruso starts with the smallest scraps (pencil and paper, pages from outdated magazines, LP sleeves, and segments of films) ransacked from the largest systems (often the advertising and entertainment industries). These he slices and reforms into work that bares every mark of the human hand. For TheHermit’s Revenge Fantasy, Borruso presents a large collection of cut paper collages, intricate graphite drawings, and a dual channel video installation. This is an inner space of DIY masks, handicrafts, and secret hideouts waiting for captive witnesses.

The work proposes that outside the perpetual cycle of market driven consumption another type of individual can and does exist; one able to construct a personal universe that is both a reflection of the self, and an ideal place to escape to. Some go further, inflicting these visions on the world. Borruso draws upon this line between creator and ideologue where obsessive, paranoid, and occasionally revelatory minds can reframe the everyday and call attention to its contradictions.

Matt Borruso earned his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2002 and his MFA from Yale University in 2004. His recent solo shows include Return To Holy Mountain at 2nd Floor Projects and Full Spectrum Aura at Steven Wolf Fine Arts, both in San Francisco. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Manhattan Cultural Council, Derek Eller, and Anna Kustera, in New York, The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, The Headlands Center for the Arts, and recently at Exile Projects in Berlin, amongst others. Borruso currently lives and works in San Francisco. This is his second solo exhibition at Steven Wolf Fine Arts.