Matthew Weinstein
Encyclopedia
Matthew Weinstein is a noted and versatile contemporary
American
visual artist, installation
sculptor and film maker.
drawing
, photographic-based image
ry of ghostly images, and a fascination with blood
, death
, skulls
and bone
s.
Currently, Weinstein’s primary medium is 3D animation and 3D rendering
. Using the 3D modeling
and rendering program Maya, he creates videos
of animated spectacles, involving actors, musicians and animators. He then creates paintings and sculptures utilizing a wide variety of technologies, such as bronze casting, rapid prototyping
sculpture, airbrush
, stenciling and resin casting
. As Weinstein’s cast of virtual
singing
characters expands, a digital
repertory company begins to exist, with characters from one project appearing in another, or in a painting or a sculpture.
Weinstein's digitalized drawings and videos explore the often ambiguous line between reality
and unreality in an American culture
that increasingly experiences reality through the filter of a virtual world
. In contrast to the precision-like rendering of his constructed and sculptural compositions
, the overall impact of this work is one of unreality, or rather “hyperclarity”, in which reality
and unreality merge together, becoming indistinguishable. Drawing on a number of influences, most notably early Japanese animation and the ancient aesthetic discipline of Ikebana
floral arrangement to futuristic science fiction
, Weinstein sets up a balance between the real and the abstract
as well as nature
and artifice. For the animated video installation
entitled "SIAM", a computer animation of a couple of Siamese fighting fish
, Weinstein wrote both the music
and choreographed the performance.
, who headed the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University
and has been credited with helping create the field of molecular epidemiology
, and his mother, the former Joan Anker; and his sisters Claudia, of Manhattan
, and Tamara, of Atlanta, Georgia
. He received his Bachelor of Arts
degree from Columbia University
in 1987. Weinstein currently lives and works in New York.
Weinstein’s primary gallery is the Sonnabend Gallery in New York. He is also represented by the Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado
and exhibits nationally and internationally. In 2004 alone, his work was the subject of a major installation at the Pinakothek der Moderne
in Munich, Germany, and his films were projected in the Kunsthalle
Vienna, Austria and screened at The Wexner Center for the Arts
in Columbus, Ohio
.
Weinstein is the recipient of many awards, including a Wexner Center for the Arts grant.
in New York, the Nassau County Museum of Art
in Roslyn, NY, the Sammlung Goetz and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich, Germany.
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
visual artist, installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
sculptor and film maker.
Art
Matthew Weinstein’s early works throughout the 1990s focused on gestural abstraction, cartoonCartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, photographic-based image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
ry of ghostly images, and a fascination with blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
, death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, skulls
Human skull
The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
and bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...
s.
Currently, Weinstein’s primary medium is 3D animation and 3D rendering
3D rendering
3D rendering is the 3D computer graphics process of automatically converting 3D wire frame models into 2D images with 3D photorealistic effects on a computer.-Rendering methods:...
. Using the 3D modeling
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...
and rendering program Maya, he creates videos
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
of animated spectacles, involving actors, musicians and animators. He then creates paintings and sculptures utilizing a wide variety of technologies, such as bronze casting, rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology. The first techniques for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a much wider range of applications...
sculpture, airbrush
Airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...
, stenciling and resin casting
Resin casting
Resin casting is a method of plastic casting where a mold is filled with a liquid synthetic resin, which then hardens. It is primarily used for small scale production like industrial prototypes and dentistry...
. As Weinstein’s cast of virtual
Virtual
The term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also, differing denotations.The term has been defined in philosophy as "that which is not real" but may display the salient qualities of the real....
singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
characters expands, a digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
repertory company begins to exist, with characters from one project appearing in another, or in a painting or a sculpture.
Weinstein's digitalized drawings and videos explore the often ambiguous line between reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
and unreality in an American culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
that increasingly experiences reality through the filter of a virtual world
Virtual world
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...
. In contrast to the precision-like rendering of his constructed and sculptural compositions
Compositions
Compositions is the fourth album by the American R&B/soul singer Anita Baker. The album peaked at #5 on Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in 1990, making it Baker's third platinum selling album...
, the overall impact of this work is one of unreality, or rather “hyperclarity”, in which reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
and unreality merge together, becoming indistinguishable. Drawing on a number of influences, most notably early Japanese animation and the ancient aesthetic discipline of Ikebana
Ikebana
is the Japanese art of flower arrangement, also known as .-Etymology:"Ikebana" is from the Japanese and . Possible translations include "giving life to flowers" and "arranging flowers".- Approach :...
floral arrangement to futuristic science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, Weinstein sets up a balance between the real and the abstract
Abstraction
Abstraction is a process by which higher concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal concepts, first principles, or other methods....
as well as nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
and artifice. For the animated video installation
Video installation
Video installation is a contemporary art form that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience. Tracing its origins to the birth of video art in the 1970s, it has increased in popularity as digital video production...
entitled "SIAM", a computer animation of a couple of Siamese fighting fish
Siamese fighting fish
The Siamese fighting fish , also known as the betta , is a popular species of freshwater aquarium fish. The name of the genus is derived from ikan bettah, taken from a local dialect of Malay...
, Weinstein wrote both the music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and choreographed the performance.
Life
Matthew Weinstein grew up in New York City with his father, I. Bernard WeinsteinI. Bernard Weinstein
I. Bernard Weinstein was an American physician and researcher who studied the effect of pollutants and other environmental factors in causing cancer and headed the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University...
, who headed the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and has been credited with helping create the field of molecular epidemiology
Molecular epidemiology
Molecular epidemiology is a branch of medical science that focuses on the contribution of potential genetic and environmental risk factors, identified at the molecular level, to the etiology, distribution and prevention of disease within families and across populations. This field has emerged from...
, and his mother, the former Joan Anker; and his sisters Claudia, of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, and Tamara, of Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. He received his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1987. Weinstein currently lives and works in New York.
Weinstein’s primary gallery is the Sonnabend Gallery in New York. He is also represented by the Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
and exhibits nationally and internationally. In 2004 alone, his work was the subject of a major installation at the Pinakothek der Moderne
Pinakothek der Moderne
The Pinakothek der Moderne is a modern art museum, situated in the city centre of Munich, Germany. Together with its two predecessors Alte Pinakothek and Neue Pinakothek The Pinakothek der Moderne (= "(Art) Gallery of the Modern"; from Greek: "pinax" = "board", "tablet") is a modern art museum,...
in Munich, Germany, and his films were projected in the Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle is, generally, in German speaking regions a term for a facility mounting temporary art exhibitions. Some are run or supported by a local Kunstverein, an art association of local collectors and artists...
Vienna, Austria and screened at The Wexner Center for the Arts
Wexner Center for the Arts
The Wexner Center for the Arts is The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
.
Weinstein is the recipient of many awards, including a Wexner Center for the Arts grant.
Museum Collections
Weinstein’s works of art are in private and public collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York, the Nassau County Museum of Art
Nassau County Museum of Art
The Nassau County Museum of Art is located 20 miles east of New York City on the former Frick Estate, a property in Roslyn Harbor in the heart of Long Island’s Gold Coast. The main museum building, named in honor of art collectors and philanthropists Arnold & Joan Saltzman, is a three-story...
in Roslyn, NY, the Sammlung Goetz and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich, Germany.