Biography
MATTHEW RYAN SHARP probably has a messy and overfilled art studio a writer could find a hundred stories in.. Sharp’s work is loaded with people we all know to some degree, sharing a colorful and lighthearted view into the American soul. Sometimes its part Harvey Pekar given the appearance of Sharp’s browbeaten characters. Sometimes its subtle soapbox material saying the things we don’t, but rather, we think. His images can exist in opposition between the subject and statement, the irony painted on found object canvases such as “Laugh” in which a clown is holding a butcher knife insisting that the viewer laugh. Or “Free Hugs” in which a frazzled orange haired man wears a badge offering free hugs. The man in the painting is desperate perhaps, but in need of sharing connection with anyone. Sharp offers truth in these images, a reflection of our own humanity laced with sarcasm and humor. He does it in brutal cartoonish fervor, like something Chuck Palahniuk sees in his mind before writing a story. He does it with the common man, the buried emotions, with skeletons and arrows and little ghosts.
No matter how stark the image or its subject Sharp creates art with great degrees of color and cheer. As a kid he rode to school passing buildings and trains littered with graffiti. The experience left an indelible impression on him as he waited in traffic watching graffiti covered trains move along. Imagine a young boy mesmerized by it all, watching art in motion as it floated by on the railroad tracks. Sharp is self taught, starting early on sitting and coloring with his mom while watching The Wizard of Oz during the eighties where television was oversaturated with color.
His sense of humor tends to match his work – dark, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek. His outsider art is more than that. It’s humorous, black-witted qualities serve as social commentary with characters based on real people, or metaphorically – exposing perceptions others may have about them. Sharp’s subjects are people in the background who likely bear greater internal burdens and hardships.. They appear tattered and torn, like old carneys, Victorian era rogues and random drunken subculture types. Sharp believes they have the best stories, more emotional issues and are more hardworking. He’s right. Comical or not, he paints the truth about those in the corners and recesses of the world. Sharp’s characters don’t suffer fools easily and many are bruised and broken, worn down. Looking at them we see ourselves, see those around us. Sharp delivers them to us without interminable reactions of revulsion. They stand in shadows and elicit reactions of sympathy and affection and smiles. Many reflect his Midwestern upbringing and self-reliance. These subjects are the salt of the earth, much like Sharp himself.