MATTER STUDIO GALLERY is thrilled to announce Shadow Matter, an exhibition of Aydin Hamami's abstract, process-oriented paintings. Hamami creates these canvases by the layering and juxtaposition of raw materials ranging from tar, wax, organic matter, and shellac on canvas. While his work focuses on process, his new exhibit 'Shadow Matter' reveals the blurring of the lines between what is real, what is the now, and what is the reflection, where these elements overlap, and how they are interdependent. What is memory, what is imagined, what we create, and where the collective knowledge, energy, and experiences of the present condition are recorded, ever fleeting, and continually transformed. These elegant and ephemeral "paintings" record and evoke awareness of shared familiar moments of our universal human consciousness. Hamami is joined in conversation by fellow artist Harley Cortez, discussing the processes, materials and themes present in Shadow Matter. Q&A to follow. About Harley Cortez: Harley Cortez is a multi-disciplinary artist, musician, and filmmaker. His work has been shown in Los Angeles, NYC, Berlin, Mexico City, and Tokyo. Raised in Los Angeles, CA, and Queens, NY, he also lived in his mother's home country, Guatemala, for a brief time in his youth. His first solo exhibition in NYC in 2022 at Georges Berges Gallery was highly lauded. His work has been recently shown at the Tamayo Museum, Jumex Museum, Charlie James Gallery, Georges Berges Gallery, and the Maia Contemporary in Mexico City. His solo exhibition in 2016 at The Paper Agency Gallery in Los Angeles titled "The Poet as Spacemen" was an immersive installation and included a Q&A with astrophysicists, cosmologists, and an astronaut from NASA and JPL. He also exhibited in Tokyo that year. His films and music compositions explore international themes of genetic and memory migration. They have been shown and performed in institutions across the globe. His recent group exhibitions, "Bridging the Abstract "and "Transcendence," featured heavy hitters Laddie John Dill, Elaine de Kooning, and Helen Frankenthaler. He is represented by Georges Bergès Gallery in New York and Berlin. His recent inclusion into shows at both gallery locations has thrust him into the international art world radar. pictured: Aydin Hamami worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting Oil, Shellac, Chalk and Patina on Canvas 60" x 54" 2023-2024