Fine Art (626) 394-3963 – Matthias Merkel Hess

April 1 – June 25, 2010

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY | EVENTS SCHEDULE

In the inventive spirit of 18th Street Arts Center’s new theme, the Creative Economy, artist Matthias Merkel Hess’ project consist of him contracting out his artistic services to the public for free. Hess’ services cover a wide array of artistic expertise ranging from ceramic art and wooden sculptures to oil, watercolor, acrylic painting, writing and photography. For advertising purposes, he has marketed his services through bandit signs that convey the irony between unnoted artists and what he refers to as “fly-by-night” businesses. The project’s overall goal is to comment on the economic status of artists and how our society values artistic labor, and at the same time bring Hess recognition as an artist.

Hess’ Blog: http://fineart6263943963.blogspot.com/

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Matthias Merkel Hess was born and raised in Iowa and moved to Los Angeles in 2002. Since that time, he has studied art and worked at bookstores and non-profit arts institutions while continuing his earlier interest in journalism and environmental science. In 2007, Hess began an MFA at UCLA where he will graduate in June 2010. Last year, Hess co-founded Mammut, a magazine that focuses on art and the environment. In graduate school, Hess also continued to hone his artistic practice, which is concerned with artistic labor, the status and reception of craft objects within the art world, and the role of pottery in contemporary art and society.