Matt Savitsky

Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Artist statement

In over two decades of experimentation, I have developed a highly collaborative approach to art making, where I work with groups to create videos and performances that reflect complex group dynamics. These collectively made pieces are buttressed by solo artworks I create in my studio. I am influenced by the work of psychoanalysts Wilfred Bion and Melanie Klein regarding the unconscious processes of groups as well as the free-associative cut-up actions used by post-Dadaists Brion Gysin and William Burroughs. Similarly, to develop my performances, I use improvisation and free-association techniques to allow for spontaneous and intuitive processes to unfold. I have explored these dynamics in projects involving BDSM roleplayers, family members, students, psychoanalysts and the queer arts community of LA. Each project gives people space to express their talents in new ways, builds community and shares group work with a greater public. For example, in Mid City Angels, I transformed a traditional solo exhibition into an experimental performance project where I invited a guest collaborator for each of the ten weeks. Together my collaborators and I blended sculpture and performance-based processes live for gallery visitors. From 2019-2022 I worked as a member of a performance collective and co-directed a theatrical production at California State University, Los Angeles, in which theater students reenacted the East Los Angeles Walkout of 1968 in the context of their academic...

Artwork