Matt Reynolds

The lingering lore of streetwear design seems to necessitate that any artist with a proclivity for skulls & roses make their bones in the rough & tumble streets of New York City. They might hustle selling t-shirts on the sidewalk, work long hours after dark screen-printing in an deserted studio, or network relentlessly at social events with other designers and influencers. They would have a vision so bulletproof, an artistic position so clean, that the mere thought of straying from the path into something new or unfamiliar would be unfathomable. We’re all familiar with that story.

And yet, there’s something to be said for the other side of the coin, for any artist supremely comfortable with constantly and meticulously testing new materials and methods, as opposed to the same old. For any artist inspired by the wilderness of the American northeast, as opposed to the concrete jungle. And for any artist content to let their work speak significantly louder than their social media presence.

Here’s to Matt Reynolds, arts-student extraordinaire, streetwear specialist before it was colloquially known as ‘streetwear,’ and champion of a curiously underrepresented approach known as “being lowkey.” In the spirit of that particular attitude, we’ll let the interview, and his art, speak for itself. Dive in.

What does it mean to be an ‘Expanded Media Artist?’

It’s in the same lane as a multi-discipline artist, but with an emphasis on digital technology. When I first went into art school I was on the graphic design track, but before you fully get into that you have to take a couple foundations classes where you’re exposed to a bunch of different mediums and ways of thinking. Those foundations courses made me want to go the art route instead. I’ll always have that background in graphic design but expanded media, in my case, is digital printmaking, blurring the lines between the different mediums.

Tell me a little about working with neon. I feel like that’s a medium that’s blowing up in popularity.

Honestly it’s amazing, but it’s a little tricky because it’s super expensive to get into and I’d have to get back to New York City for an open studio. There’s this place called Brooklyn Glass that has boot-camps for neon — you start out learning simple bends and then you can make your own stuff. Obviously it starts as straight glass and you have to inflate the tubes as you’re heating them up right in front of a torch, so you gotta be careful, but it’s pretty sweet.

Like you said though, it is super popular. In the neon community it’s pretty taboo finding ripoffs of people’s works — there’ll be a sign that goes viral on social media and all the sudden there’s like 30 to 40 people selling crappy LED versions of it that are just going to melt. If you’re into that sort of thing, definitely try to support the artist that is actually making the actual glass neon signs.

How do you tell if it’s authentic?

Up close it’s pretty obvious because the fakes are physically filled with different LED bulbs — they’re not as pure of a light source. You can also tell a real one by how vibrant the actual neon is. It’s a lot safer because it’s an actual artisan making the signs, not some shady company.

Looking back at some of the older prints, there’s a huge skull motif going on. What drew you to that?

I love it because it’s really loaded imagery. You see a skull, you know what’s going on. It’s dark, but like also it’s just really solid iconography for warning signs … you see a skull, you don’t fuck with whatever is going on over there. [Laughs]

What about that halftone effect? How do you create that?

It’s definitely Roy Liechtenstein-inspired. Basically when you’re looking really close at something like a comic book illustration, you see the dots and it kind of breaks it down into almost like an optical illusion. It looks like it has a whole range of values but really it’s just black and white. Usually artists & printmakers use circles, but I like to use lines. I’ll start with a photograph, usually, and then I try to break it down into simpler illustrations. I use the halftone effect so it can translate onto any surface and any process.

Would you say that pop art influences your work?

Definitely. Lately I’ve been trying to use more vivid colors and usually pop art is just like, “BAM, right in your face!” Every printmaker knows Andy Warhol. He was the one who changed that silk screen process from just a commercial process to an actual style in the art world.

What do you think is the biggest upside to the whole coronavirus challenge? Is there anything that you’ve gotten out of it that’s a positive or a silver lining that you probably wouldn’t have done if this whole thing hadn’t happened?

I spend a lot of time indoors, in studios, as it is, so I’ve honestly been doing the complete opposite of that: going on a lot of hikes. Now that I’m in the Hudson Valley area I’m trying to take full advantage of all the amazing rivers and lakes around here.

The overall silver lining though is the impact on the environment, especially back at the beginning when nobody was driving anywhere. I read that pollution went down a lot, although now it’s starting to creep back up. Even just going to the beach these days … the water feels nicer. [Laughs]

What’s a work of art, recent or otherwise, that you’re most proud of and why?

I got into a process called paper casting pretty recently, and I used an AirForce 1 sole and made the whole thing out of recycled paper that I beat myself, down to a pulp and everything. I ended up with a really dope casting of the shoe.

Papermaking is a really lowkey medium, especially when you compare it with printmaking … it’s kind of been pushed aside. It’s a niche practice to do but it’s super cool printmaking sheets of paper and making sculptural forms in them.

What drew you to papercasting? I’ve literally never even heard of that process.

I took a papermaking class last semester and it had a big focus on making sheet paper. You’d have all these different types of fiber, and I was always drawn to the recycled fibers because my first thought was, “Oh, I have all this leftover paper and I hate paying $10 a sheet at an art store, so I might as well make it myself.” Once I started to learn more about it, all these possibilities opened up.

I went to a papermaking studio in New York City, and the artist-in-residence there made these cinderblocks out of paper. They were pre-dyed so they really looked like brick. They looked so damn real but they didn’t weigh anything. I’d never thought of paper as a sculptural medium until then.

What’s the process like for that?

I’ve been working on making my own molds, but the mold for the Air Force 1 was actually a promotional item I have from when the Lunar Force 1 came out, a few years ago. The mold itself looks like a footprint on the moon for the lunar sole. I just filled it with pulp and then pressed it down with a block of wood, let it dry for a day and … even the first one came out way better than I was expecting. The amount of detail that you can see in it is unreal … I didn’t think you could get that kind of thing out of paper.

I love that concept of the first walk on the moon. Never even thought of that design like that before you said that.

Yeah, it’s something I try to do with my work —keep people guessing what’s going on. [Laughs]

Here’s hoping you start selling your designs again.

I definitely want to get back into selling t-shirts and printing more.

Actually, this is something you’ll like: Last semester, right before everything shut down, I was in the printmaking club here and we actually got hired to print t-shirts live at a bunch of shows. There were these crazy house shows, and bands, and fans, would come in, and we’d be selling shirts and also printing on people’s shirts. Music was playing 20ft from us and we were just chilling there with our silk screen machine ready to go.

We got the designs beforehand so we had the screens prepared and some shirts printed out already, but mostly it was people saying like, “Oh, print something on my jacket!” One guy just took his shirt off and walked away until we were done printing. Guess you could say it was a pretty good experience. [Laughs]