Matthew Dibble

When I go to the atelier I work as if it is the last time I will ever be there. Life experience shows me that I have no guarantee on tomorrow. Keeping that in mind while painting or drawing creates a tension that grounds me.
I’ve never had difficulty working in the studio and look forward to getting there every day. Challenging times create an opening, a place that’s not all “Peace, Love and Bobby Sherman”. I’ve learned from this place of doubt, anxiety and fear that another state is possible. I have no idea what my future holds but when I can be impartial, I see where my responsivity lies.

After decades spent running a construction business, I approach my art like a true tradesman: with watchful attention and professional confidence. I compose gesturally abstract and figural paintings marked by a certain creative choreography. After graduating in 1978 from Cleveland’s Cooper School of the Arts, an establishment-defying academy, I have forged my own path artistically. My ongoing body of work includes original, nuanced reactions to both modern and postmodern sensibilities, with as few aesthetic or philosophical pretensions as possible. I continue to be fascinated every day with gesture and action in my work.

Before unveiling its interactive Gallery One in 2012, the Cleveland Museum of Art filmed Matt demonstrating abstract painting techniques. The resulting video is currently on public view in Gallery One at CMA.

Lyons Wier Gallery, on line exhibition "Chrysalistasis" new work from 50 artists, curated by James Austin Murray_New York, NY June 2020

First Street Gallery, Solo Exhibition "Legendary Bog"
New York, NY January 2019

First Street Gallery, Group Show "Borderlines: Redefining Boundaries" New York, NY July, 2018

The Other Art Fair, Brooklyn Expo Center, Brooklyn, NY
November 9-12 2017

The Painting Center, Group Exhibition "Kindred Spirits" New York, NY November 2017

Tregoning and Company, Solo Exhibition "Puzzled Bipeds" Cleveland, OH May 2017

First Street Gallery, Solo Exhibition "Useful Pressures"
New York, NY January 2017

First Street Gallery "Artists Choose Artists" New York, NY April 2016

Greenville Center For Creative Arts "Kindred Spirits" Greenville, SC April 2016

First Street Gallery "Under the Influence" New York,NY
September 2015

Bruno Casiano Gallery “Pioneer Driven Mad” Cleveland, OH April 2015

First Street Gallery, Pop-up “On and Off the Wall” New York, NY January 2015

Tregoning & Co. Brace:“Solo Painting Exhibition”, Cleveland, OH May 2014

Elder Gallery, “Solo Painting Exhibition”, Charlotte, NC March 2014

Tregoning & Co. “Aspects of Modern Life,” Cleveland, OH April 2011

Arts Collinwood Gallery “Hope For the Picture Guild, ”Cleveland, OH Sept. 2010

Butler Institute of American Art, 74th Midyear Exhibition, Youngstown, OH July 2010

Asterisk Gallery, “Equipping the Shop for Action,” Cleveland, OH, August 2009

Tregoning & Co., “Paintings and Constructions,” Cleveland, OH July 2009

73rd Annual Midyear Exhibition, Butler Institute, Youngstown, OH June 2009

Tregoning & Company, Cleveland, OH April 2008

50th Chautauqua National Exhibition of American Art, Chautauqua, NY June 2007

Butler Institute of American Art, 70th Midyear Exhibition, Youngstown, OH July 2006

Studio Of Five Rings, “Cavalcade of Oddballs” Cleveland,OH January 2006

Beaker Gallery, “sawtelle, the sequel” Tampa, FL October 2004

domestic setting, “Sequel” Los Angeles, CA March, 2003

superior (an exhibition space), Cleveland, OH April 2002

Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA April 1998

Massillon Museum, Massillon, OH March 1996

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH June 1994

Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV March 1994

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH June 1993

Moreau Gallery, St. Mary’s College, South Bend, IN January 1990

Karamu House, Cleveland, OH November 1984

SPACES, Cleveland, OH July 1984

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH 1980, 1984, 1985

Having come of age in the late 1970's I still take a Modernist approach to painting. William DeKooning, Philip Guston, Francis Bacon,
Jean Dubuffet and Paul Klee are some of my favorites

gestural, oil, contemporary, modern, abstract, mid century