"What we now call asemic writing is a human phenomenon, not a modern art phenomenon."
—Spencer Linford, communications
Black and White is an exhibition of monochromatic works by Matt Magee pulled from Tamarind Institute, Woolworth Publications, Manneken Press, Obee Editions, and the artist’s studio. Together, these works show the development of Magee’s mark making since 2019. The works in this exhibit lay bare the semantics of Magee’s visual language, which is influenced by location, collaborators, and artistic inspirations. With their grid-like arrays of non-representational forms and pared back palettes, these works trace the development of asemic writing* in the artist's practice and ask how visual language might function in a post-literate world.
*Asemic: a wordless, open semantic form of writing.
