Santa Barbara, CA - My Pet Ram is pleased to present Palm Arcade by Matt Haywood, opening Saturday, September 17th in Santa Barbara.

In Matt Haywood’s Palm Arcade, the artist uses the palm motif to explore color, space, tactility, and time. Rather than focusing on the biological nature of palm fronds, Haywood uses the ripe subject for its architectural value. A trunk bends in on itself to create an archway for example, or multiple trees align side by side to create an architectural arcade reminiscent of Italian courtyards. The endlessly inspiring motif houses endless interpretation, but for Haywood the idea of organic growth stands above the rest, as it relates to the way his picture making process operates: a process without direct image reference that synthesizes memory, imagination, and pure expressionistic impulse to ultimately create recognizable imagery.

Palm Arcade open on Saturday, September 17th and remain on view through Sunday, October 17, 2022. The gallery, which is steps from Cabrillo Boulevard at 16 Helena Avenue, will be open Thursday through Sunday from 12-7 pm and by appointment.

Please email info@mypetram.com for additional information.

Los Angeles-based artist Matt Haywood (b. 1985, Detroit, MI) is compelled by exploring organic links in formal content and imagery through impulse driven means, doing so without direct image reference and instead working entirely from memory and imagination. Through this highly expressive and impulse driven exploratory practice, he blends his background as an observational painter and his respect for the rich history of painting into a unique synthesis of expressionistic abstraction and familiar representation. Allowing the content of his work to present itself through the painting process rather than working to represent any pre-determined subject, Haywood’s explorations are ultimately both psychological and optical in nature. Despite his motifs coming from a highly personal psychological space his regard for the history of picture making compels him to make works that allow for viewer interpretation while simultaneously holding formal properties that make them understood universally both in a chromatic and spacial sense.

The Artist received his BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and has additionally studied at the International School of Painting Drawing and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally from NY, to Berlin, and Mexico City, while his most recent solo exhibition was held at NY based My Pet Ram’s pop up space in Santa Barbara, Calif. Haywood was a founding member of Los Angeles based project space Gallery ALSO, where he curated multiple group and solo shows as well as showing his own work. He has been interviewed and featured in print by Art Maze Magazine. Some of Haywood’s notable recent exhibitions include: