Listen "Matt Magee"
Episode Synopsis
Matt Magee is an American contemporary artist known for his minimal geometric paintings, sculptures, prints, assemblages, murals, and photographs. Over a four-decade career, Magee has experimented widely with abstract and conceptual art practices. His compositions draw inspiration from personal history, numerology, and language. In his paintings and prints, he explores language through abstraction, repetition, reiteration, and the occasional tip of the hat to art historical precedents. His visual language relates to early hard-edge abstraction and finds inspiration in contemporary scientific, ecological, and technological ideas.
His work is in the permanent collections of the Albuquerque Art Museum, NM; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, CT; Black Mountain College Art Museum, NC; the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ; Tucson Museum of Art, AZ; and the University of New Mexico Art Museum, NM.
Matt Magee, Grapheme: 16 Squares, 2021, oil on primed paper. © Matt Magee; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
Matt Magee, Black Grapheme, 2021, oil on panel. © Matt Magee; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
Matt Magee, Ryan Lee Grapheme, 2025, acrylic and pencil on canvas. © Matt Magee; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
His work is in the permanent collections of the Albuquerque Art Museum, NM; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, CT; Black Mountain College Art Museum, NC; the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ; Tucson Museum of Art, AZ; and the University of New Mexico Art Museum, NM.
Matt Magee, Grapheme: 16 Squares, 2021, oil on primed paper. © Matt Magee; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
Matt Magee, Black Grapheme, 2021, oil on panel. © Matt Magee; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
Matt Magee, Ryan Lee Grapheme, 2025, acrylic and pencil on canvas. © Matt Magee; Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.
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