Joe Brainard: Matchbook Miniatures

Chris Sharp gallery is thrilled to present its second solo exhibition of Joe Brainard (b. 1942, Arkansas; d. 1994, New York). This show features a rare, never-before-seen series of matchbook miniatures. Made in 1975, the works consist of collages and paintings on open matchbooks. Confining himself to this highly reduced pictorial field with its own specific set of limitations, Brainard proves that no support, however pedestrian, is safe from his irrepressible artistic brilliance. From two matches in bed together to a postage stamp on a sandwich with a glass of milk to a moonscape with an Egyptian sphinx, Brainard’s interventions testify to the inexhaustibility of his imagination. These diminutive pieces could be considered pure Brainard, or Brainard at his best: abounding in invention, beauty and wit, they demonstrate his commitment to the minor, his fondness for economy of scale, unconventional materials and, lastly, the everyday as a site of endless elaboration, which is anything but banal in Brainard’s nimble, magic-making hands. ---