THE MISSION PROJECTS is pleased to announce Cutouts and Cut-offs, an exhibition of new and recent works by Matt Magee. The exhibition is on view at THE RESIDENCE through February 24, 2024.



Magee collects and stockpiles everyday objects, then cuts, manipulates, and sequences these familiar items into geometric sculptures, collages, and paintings. His assemblages of found materials — aluminum cans, plastic detergent bottles, wire, mica, and glass beads — are influenced by his fascination with language, symbols, and the reflections embedded in certain surfaces. The works are poetic and repetitive, ranging from minimalist abstract geometric paintings, to assemblages of vibrant bars and circles in flat colors, to framed works of glittering mica and reflective metal.





Magee’s interest in reusing and repurposing found media in his practice began in the 1970s when he was a teenager. While working in retail at a mall in Dallas, he began saving plastic garment bags from inventory shipments and stringing them onto wire, twisting and melting them, then pulling them through metal cloth. In 1983, while interning with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, he began collecting discarded plastic bottles that had been floating in the canals. He cut the bottles into shapes and strips and made small sculptures in his apartment on the Giudecca. Later, while pursuing an MFA at Pratt Institute, his time was devoted to making 12- to 14-foot-tall structures from found aluminum cans. Although he also works with traditional media such as paint on panel, lithography, and photography, he has always maintained a specific interest in repurposing found objects into sculpture. Form, materiality, color, and oddity are central themes in his works as he connects disparate materials to create unexpected, coalesced objects.





MATT MAGEE received an MFA at Pratt University (Brooklyn, NY) and a BA at Trinity University (San Antonio, TX). He has recently exhibited solo exhibitions at Standard Space (Sharon, CT), Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix, AZ), PazdaButler Gallery (Houston, TX), Richard Levy Gallery (Albuquerque, NM), inde/jacobs (Marfa, TX), Bookstein Projects (New York, NY), Etherton Gallery (Tucson, AZ), among others. Magee was awarded residencies at Tamarind Institute in 2013 and 2016, and Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in 2007 and 2015. Magee was born in France and subsequently lived in Tripoli, Libya; London, England; Dallas, TX; and New York, NY. He currently lives and works in Phoenix, AZ.

Exhibition viewings available by appointment. Email rebecca@themissionprojects.com to schedule.