My artwork and creative process are inherently dependent on participants who are willing to volunteer as subjects. I have several projects that are ongoing (listed to the left by project name). If you wish to participate in any one of my projects, please contact me for instructions. For example, the pieces above are part of *somewhereX - a gay Mormon portrait project (see description below) other project narratives are included in the links to the left.)

*somewhereX - a gay mormon portrait project - "because we exist" . I am looking for LGBTQ mormons (active, inactive or excommunicated) to document in titan-sized portrait paintings to show strength in solidarity, to portray the beauty and worth of individuals who have been able to weather feeling like an outcast or worse, due to being "other than" the norm and who have managed to get to the other side, through extraordinary sheer will and determination where they now experience peace, happiness, and wholeness living their truth despite a culture's unwillingness to accept and embrace them, let alone tolerate or understand them.

For up to date info ... check out my facebook page and of course click "like" OR follow me on instagram matthewivancherry.artist

Freak OUT! is an exhibition of the arts expressing the boldness, liberation, individuality, coming of age and decadence of the Disco era.

Zhou B Art Center
April 15 to May 13, 2016
Curated by Didi Menendez and Sergio Gomez

Silvio Porzionato, Michael Van Zeyl, Kip Omolade, Reuben Negron, Matthew Cherry
Nick Ward, Angela Hardy, Nadine Robbins, Jeff Bess, Cesar Conde, Jaime Valero
Victoria Selbach, Daniel Maidman, Daena Title, Pauline Aubey, Erica Elan Ciganek
Elizabeth Claire, Geraldine Rodriguez, Suzy Smith, Jan Brandt, Sharon Pomales, Natalie Roseman, Adam Holzrichter, Mike Selbach, Debra Balchen, Lacey Lewis , Melinda Whitmore , John Walker, Jeff Filipski ,John Korn, Sonne Hernandez, Steven Da Luz , Patrick Earl Hammie , Debra Livingston, Francien Krieg, Adrian Cox ,Dorielle Caimi ,Bryce Ramming , Angela Swan , Shana Levenson, Daliah Ammar, Joyce Polance, Omalix, Martin Easley, Tanja Gant, Mary Jones Easley, Katalin Studlik, Christopher Kienke, Nin Andrews, Grace Cavalieri, Ron Androla,Grady Harp, Joshua Gray, Matthew Hittinger,Sara Nordmark, Janice Bond

Exhibition at Sirona Fine Arts
Curated by Victoria Selbach
February 21, 2015
PoetsArtists Issue #61

Sirona Fine Art

Sirona Fine Art, PoetsArtists magazine and over 40 prominent male and female artists​ collaborate in this ambitious online, print and gallery exhibition. This survey presents the female form and persona as viewed by other artists, ​with the artist themselves as subject, and in the greater context of the society we live in. These contemporary sculptures and paintings are introspective, provocative, sensitive and declamatory visual statements. PoetsArtists magazine publishes these images in a dynamic printed and digital issue along with compelling artist statements and essays to match the visual talents here. Artist's included in the exhibition are: Aleah Chapin, Alison Lambert, Alyssa Monks, Bernardo Torrens, Brian Booth Craig, Cesar Santos, Christian Johnson, Cindy Bernhard, Daliah Lina Ammar, Daniel Maidman, Delita Martin, Dorielle Caimi, Erica Elan Ciganek, Erin Anderson, Hollis Dunlap, Jaime Valero, Jason Bard Yarmosky, Jeff Faerber, Jennifer Balkan, Judith Peck, Krista Smith, Lauren Levato Coyne, Maria Kreyn, Mark Horst, Marshall Jones, Mary Beth McKenzie, Matthew Cherry, Melinda Whitmore, Mia Bergeron, Michelle Doll, Nadine Robbins, Nick Ward, Park Hyun Jin, Patrick Earl Hammie, Reuben Negron, Richard Thomas Scott, Ryan Shultz, Stephen Early, Stephen Wright, Susannah Martin, Tim Okamura, Victoria Selbach, Wesley Wofford and Will Kurtz.

Opening Reception: February 21 // 6 - 9pm
rsvp: Sirona Fine Art

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013 - MARCH 10, 2013
Opening: Friday, February 15, 2013 7pm - 10pm

From Motion to Stillness is an exhibition and a publication seeking to explore aspects of stillness, quietness, reflection, meditation, inner-peace, solitude, reflection and calmness as a human experience. Despite living in a fast-paced and rapidly changing world, From Motion to Stillness invites the viewer and the reader alike to pause for a moment and experience stillness as interpreted by some of today's most exciting contemporary artists and poets.

From Motion to Stillness takes place in a gallery setting, print and digital formats. The exhibition is co-curated by Sergio Gomez of Chicago’s Zhou B Art Center and Didi Menendez of PoetsArtists Magazine poetsandartists

Check out the new Issue of PoetsandArtists

Front cover thanks to the Artist, Nick Ward
Back cover thanks to Didi Menedez, Editor-in-Chief, Publisher of PoetsArtists

Other artists: Angelique Moselle Price, David Jamieson, Leah Yerpe. Victoria Selbach, Alex Schmidt, Paul Beel, D.C. Morale, Daniel Maidman, Judith Peck, Deborah Scott, Pauline Aubey, Nick Ward, Michelle Buchman, Rory Coyne, Richard T. Scott, Gregory Radionov, Scott Kiche, Francois Bard, Erin Cone, Park HyungJin, Tony South

PoetsArtists

I am featured in the newest issue of Poets/Artists. My first time. Click the link to browse the online version. You can purchase it in print form after you click on the "buy print" link up at the top. Its a great crew to be with...poets and artists. Thanks to Didi Menéndez.

PoetsArtists

Matthew Ivan Cherry is an artist whose energies and oeuvre focus on the depiction of the face, head, bust and body. His work contributes to a dialogue on identity, individuality, gender, beauty, the ordinary joe and superhero complex and the self in reference to pop culture as he documents random people he connects with in life, on the streets and via social media.

Cherry straddles the worlds of contemporary art practitioners with observational artists interested in figural constructs. His concepts and narratives are integrated and woven with a formal additive/subtractive process layering washes, glazes, marks, and drips that are accumulative and serve as a summation of documented thoughts, impulses and reactions. Balancing representation with abstraction and pure mark making…the blend creates a final object with the process integral to the purity of its intent.

Cherry received his BFA from Northern Arizona University where he began painting as a figural artist exploring domestic narratives. After having received his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he attended with the Presidential Fellowship, he set up his studio practice and began to exhibit in and around Chicago and the Midwest at galleries such as Lyons-Wier, Gescheidle, and fifty-50. He has taught and guest lectured at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The University of Chicago, Ox-Bow, The Evanston Art Center, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and the Art Institute of Boston @ Lesley University. His solo exhibition at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design debuted his titan-sized nude portraits entitled “someBODIES”. He has served as the Dean of English, Fine Arts and Humanities at South Suburban College, and the Academic Dean at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. He is currently serving as an Associate Professor, Chair of Fine Arts & Foundations, and the Sr. Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Lesley University College of Art & Design (formerly the Art Institute of Boston.) His work has been featured in New American Paintings Volume #s 35, 47, 59, and 81 and more recently in Poets and Artists in the July and Sept issues in 2012.