Matt Demers
Gardiner, ME
Matt Demers (b. 1990) is a visual artist living and working in Gardiner, Maine. He has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as Katzman Contemporary Projects, Zepster Gallery, Jumee Kim Gallery, Unity College, Greenhut Gallery, and Notch8 Gallery. His work has appeared in publications such as Artscope Magazine, Decor Maine, and Maine Home and Design and is included in private collections around the world.
Selected Works
PS
24 x 24 inches
Acrylic on panel
2026
Avoid Notes
48 x 36 inches
Acrylic on panel
2025
Let's Hear It
24 x 24 inches
Acrylic on panel
2025
Recently Submerged
12 x 9 inches
Acrylic on panel
2026
It Was Like That When We Got Here
24 x 24 inches
Acrylic on linen
2026
Dear Aunt Pemdas
48 x 36 inches
Acrylic on panel
2023
Wobby Sobby
48 x 32 inches
Acrylic on panel
2022
Beside Myself
24 x 24 inches
Acrylic on panel
2023
Reply All
24 x 24 inches
Acrylic on panel
2023
Artist Statement
I take everything in and let it back out in my own way. Paint translates a lifetime of visual influences, allowing shreds of memories and experiences to crash together and become something unrecognizable but familiar. By embracing randomness and spontaneity in form, color, and marks, I've become open to an ongoing transformation in the work and in myself.
CV
Resides: Gardiner, ME
-
2023
Good Grief, Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, Rochester, NH
Hang in There, Baby!, Center for Maine Craft, Gardiner, ME2021
Some Antics, The Press Hotel Gallery, Portland, ME2019
Hi Hello Hi, Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, Rochester, NH
At Least For Now, Jumee Kim Gallery, Daejeon, South Korea2018
Everybody’s Talkin’ at Me, UMVA Gallery, Portland, ME
Monologue, Frank Brockman Gallery, Brunswick, ME
Nest, Unity College, Unity, ME2017
Self Portrait, Ticonic Gallery + Studios, Waterville, ME -
2023
Taking Shape: Matt Demers, Keri Kimura, Thomas Stenquist, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME2022
Good Behavior: Sophie Cangelosi, Matt Demers, Kevin Xiques, Table Bar, Gardiner, ME2015
Chaos and Quiet: Matt Demers, Allison McKeen, Harmon’s and Barton’s Gallery, Portland, ME
Long Distance Call: Matt Demers, John Carnes, Scott Minzy, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME2013
Revision: Matt Demers and Allison McKeen, Monkitree, Gardiner, ME -
2026
Painted Fiction, Ticonic Gallery + Studios, Waterville, ME
Infinite Games, Club Magic, Portland, ME
The Portland Show 2026, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME2025
Impolitic, Sidle House, Freeport, ME2024
8×8, Notch8 Gallery, Portland, ME
Works on Paper, Zepster Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
NFS, University of New Hampshire Gallery of Art, Durham, NH
Next Gen, Cove Street Arts, Portland, ME
the House support itself, Lights Out Gallery, Brunswick, ME2023
Little Sparks, Lights Out Gallery, Norway, ME
Nor’easterly 2, Katzman Contemporary Projects, Dover, NH2022
Summer Blend, Katzman Contemporary Projects, Dover, NH
On the Edge, University of New Hampshire Gallery of Art, Durham, NH2021
Nor’easterly, Katzman Contemporary Projects, Dover, NH2018
Some Reliable Truths About Chairs, UMVA Gallery, Portland, ME
Art2018 23rd Annual Juried Show, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME2016
Fine Print, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME2014
Art.Works, Art Collector Maine, Kennebunkport, ME2013
Play, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME -
2026
Ellis Beauregard Foundation (forthcoming), Rockland, ME2025
Hewnoaks, Lovell, ME -
2022
No Time, Ticonic Gallery + Studios, Waterville, ME -
Artscope Magazine
Decor Maine
Maine Home and Design
Maine Magazine
Kennebec Journal
Matt Demers
essay by Amy Rahn
Matt Demers is a visual artist living and working in Gardiner, Maine. A quiet person, he closely observes the fevered and cross-talking world, absorbing and collecting its art and ephemera, and learning or imagining the meanings that odd objects, forgotten texts, and torn treasures carry. Demers is or has been an art and antiques collector, sign maker, gravedigger, embroiderer, antiques dealer, and graphic artist; those experiences shape the various thoughts and techniques that make their way into his paintings. He is drawn to the misfiled and overlooked fragments of the past and the ways they might shine if rightly considered.
Demers’ paintings are abstract and include media like acrylic, spray paint, house paint, and collaged ephemera. Drawing is critical to his artistic practice. His drawings on post-its, the backs of work orders, or on vintage writing pads fill his studio and notebooks, forming a loose index of observations and ideas about them. Demers’ abstract, mixed-media paintings accordingly emphasize line, yet rather than delineate, Demers’ line tangles forms and associations within each other, suggesting the all-at-onceness of careworn antiques, Charlie Brown, graffiti, medieval armor, Instagram, floral wallpaper, and music.
A list of influences written in Demers’ sketchbook includes drawn thoughts in the form of looping line drawings and words including: “growth, change, music, rhythm, legos, comics, happy/sad, landscape, processing, observing, masks, swirling, accumulations, piles of stuff.” Elements of his paintings sometimes resemble and sometimes only symbolize fragments of the world and associations about them. In the paintings, jumbled associations mount into form, only to be painted out, eroded from the painting’s surface, or covered by a different thought. Demers’ paintings, in other words, are about everything at once, snagged and stacked over the surface, the very pile-up of contemporary life, and the way it feels to think about it all together.
— Amy Rahn
Inquire
To inquire about available works or learn more about Matt Demers, please get in touch.