March 25—April 18, 2009

Matthew Litteken from his series The Fabric of Folly

Paho Mann from his series Junk Drawer

Litteken reception: Wednesday, March 25, 5-7pm
(talk at 6 with music by Rob Davidson)

Mann reception: Art First Saturday, April 4, 5-7pm
(talk at 6; Pressman Negatives by Jason Tannen at 7; poetry by Deborah Woodard at 7:30)

Matthew Litteken (www.mwlitteken.blogspot.com) graduated from Miami University (of Ohio) in 1995 with a BFA. His concentrations during school were painting and ceramics, with an additional emphasis in art education. His paintings have been included in various shows at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Purdue University Galleries, Northern Kentucky University, The Artist's Museum in Washington, D.C., and The Art Association of Harrisburg, PA. In 2002, he was one of the artists featured in the exhibition "The Art of the State" at the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, PA. Litteken is currently represented by Amy Baber Fine Art in Shreveport, LA. His paintings are in private collections across the U.S. Matthew and his wife, Blossom, with their son, Gabriel, currently reside in the greater Cincinnati area, where, in 2004, he completed his MFA at the School of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. He is currently teaching at both the University of Dayton and Miami University in the fine arts department. Litteken visits Chico from Ohio for five days to install his work at the 1078 and to talk at the reception.

Litteken Reception 3/25/09 photo by Carla Resnick

He writes, "The thrust of my work delves into the notion of societal value assessments in relation to art as commodity. My intent is to engage the viewing public with a body of paintings incorporating the iconography and motifs from U.S. currency, thereby generating a dialogue about the interplay of both spending practices and value assignments, predominantly in relation to artistic commodities."
(image: Reserve 2, 2008, oil on canvas, 50" x 70")

Paho Mann (www.pahomann.com) was born in 1978 on his parents' homestead near Snowflake, AZ. In 1993, he moved with his family to Albuquerque, where in 2001 he received a BFA from the University of New Mexico. He earned his MFA from Arizona State in 2007. Currently, Mann lives and works in Denton, Texas, where he is an assistant professor of photography at the University of North Texas. He visits Chico for his reception on April 4. Mann's work investigates the physical manifestation of individuality through the use of both traditional photographic practices and contemporary digital technology. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Arizona State University Art Museum (Tempe), Tucson Museum of Art, and the Albuquerque Center for Contemporary Art. He has been commissioned for public art projects by the city of Phoenix.

He writes, "In Junk Drawer, a set of images of the catchall drawer in people's kitchens, I investigate our relationship to collected consumer products. It is through the system of storage, and each individual's interaction with this system and its objects, that same and different become visible."

(image: Everything in Our Apartment, 2007, archival inkjet print, 23" x 46"